Premium
Use of principal factor analysis to generate a corn silage fermentative quality index to rank well‐ or poorly preserved forages
Author(s) -
Gallo Antonio,
Giuberti Gianluca,
Bruschi Sara,
Fortunati Paola,
Masoero Francesco
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.7272
Subject(s) - silage , food science , fermentation , mycotoxin , clostridia , mathematics , zearalenone , biology , zoology , agronomy , microbiology and biotechnology , chemistry , bacteria , genetics
BACKGROUND To investigate corn silage fermentative quality, a principal factor analysis was carried out on a database consisting of 196 corn silages sampled from the core, lateral and apical parts of silo feed‐out face and characterised by 36 variables. Eleven principal factor components ( PCs ) were retained and interpreted. Two PCs were related to chemical and digestibility variables; four PCs were characterised by end‐products associated with clostridia, heterolactic, homolactic or aerobic fermentations; two PCs were associated with mycotoxins produced by Penicillium roqueforti or by Aspergillus fumigatus and Fusarium spp., while three PCs explained ensiling procedures adopted to store corn silages. RESULTS Lower ( P < 0.05) yeast or mould counts and greater ( P < 0.05) aerobic stability were measured in core than in peripheral samples. Excluding PCs related to ensiling procedures, other PCs were able to predict microbiological counts, aerobic stability or biogenic amine content as verified by multiple linear regression analysis. Based on these results, several corn silage quality index calculations were computed by using a summative equation approach in which different PCs as well as diverse relative weights multiplying each PCs were combined. To compute definitive index calculation, only PCs explaining clostridia, heterolactic and homolactic fermentations were used with relative weights of 30%, 50% and 20%. CONCLUSIONS The new proposed fermentative quality index was highly correlated to parameters related to corn silage fermentative quality, such as microbiological counts, aerobic stability or biogenic amines and it properly discriminated well‐ and poorly preserved forages. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry