Influence of Microbial Inoculants on Feeding Value of Spent Lentinula edodes Substrate

Sawdust-based Spent Lentinula Edodes Substrate (SLES) is an important agricultural waste resource for its’ huge production amount, on the other hand, it is hard to recycling because of the low digestibility. For the purpose of recycling the SLES, a study was conducted to improve the feeding values of SLES via microbial inoculation. The SLES was ensiled with 0.5% (v/w) Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB, Lactobacillus plantarum) or 0.5% (v/w) yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) for 15 days. Four treatments were made included 100% SLES (control), 99% SLES +0.5% LAB (T1), 99% SLES +0.5% yeast (T2) and 99% SLES +0.5% LAB +0.5% yeast (T3). Compared with the raw SLES (not fermentation), 100% SLES (control) after ensiling showed higher (p<0.05) pH (5.47) and lower lactic acid production. The addition of microbe to the SLES improved most of the physical parameters, fermentation parameters and microbial populations compared to the control experiments. On the other hand, microbial-blending to SLES decreased most of the chemical parameters except for the Crude Protein (CP). Compared to the raw, ensile fermentation would increase the amino acids and microbial inoculants to the SLES could increase the total amount of amino acids further and the most abundant component of essential-amino acid and non-essential amino acid were valine and glutamate, respectively. Among the four ensile treatments, the impact of the addition of 0.5% LAB and 0.5% yeast (T3) on the SLES storage and feeding value was the greatest one (p<0.05). In conclusion: Microbial inoculation improved ensiling and feeding values of SLES.