The use of PacBio SMRT technology to explore the microbial network and fermentation characteristics of woody silage prepared with exogenous carbohydrate additives

AIMS: To effectively use woody plant resources to prepare silage for ruminants, Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) single‐molecule real‐time (SMRT) sequencing was applied to study the microbial network and fermentation characteristics of paper mulberry (PM) silage prepared with corn meal (CM) and rice bran (RB) as exogenous additives. METHODS AND RESULTS: PM is rich in nutrients and contains more than 26% crude protein in dry matter. After ensiling, the microbial diversity and abundance in PM, CM and RB decreased due to the anaerobic environment and acidic conditions. The CM‐treated PM silage accelerated the conversion of the dominant microbial community from harmful bacteria to lactic acid bacteria and promoted lactic acid fermentation. When RB was used to treat PM silage, Enterobacter and Clostridium species became the main bacterial community during ensiling, leading to butyric acid fermentation and protein decomposition. Compared with RB, CM increased the amount of fermentation substrates, changed the microbial community structure and affected metabolic pathways (global metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism and amino acid metabolism), which improved the flavour and quality of the PM silage. CONCLUSIONS: The CM addition of improved the fermentation quality of PM silage, with PM + CM being the ideal combination. The SMRT sequencing technology could accurately obtain specific details of the microbial networks and fermentation characteristics. Our results indicate that PM can be used as a potential high‐protein silage in animal production. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: In tropics, the effective use of abundant natural biomass resources such as woody plants to prepare silage for feed preservation can solve the problem of restricting livestock production due to the shortage of feed in the dry season. SMRT sequencing technology was used to accurately analyze the microbial network and fermentation characteristics of woody silage prepared with CM as an exogenous additive to improve the fermentation quality of silage.