ABSTRACT
Chitosan is a biodegradable, antimicrobial, and antifungal polysaccharide to be used as an alternative silage additive. This study aimed to determine the effects of chitosan addition on fermentative profile, total losses, in vitro degradation of silage, and in situ digestibility. A total of eight studies of six articles that reported chitosan use as a silage feed additive were integrated into a database. Data were analysed according to a mixed model methodology in which different studies were treated as random effects and chitosan silage additive doses were treated as fixed effects. Results showed that chitosan addition was able to reduce pH, ethanol, yeast and mould of silage (P<0.05), followed by decreased effluent, gas, and total losses of silage (P<0.05). The chitosan increased lactic acid bacteria and DM recovery of silage (P<0.05). Chitosan increased concentration of lactic and acetic acid (P<0.05). Chitosan did not influence the silage's NH3-N, propionic, and butyric (P>0.05). In contrast, adding chitosan decreased NDF in situ digestibility, besides increasing the DMD in situ digestibility of silage (P<0.05). However, chitosan addition decreased NDF and DMD in vitro degradation of silage (P<0.05). In conclusion, adding chitosan as a silage feed additive may benefit the preservation quality of silage by increasing lactic acid bacteria and DM recovery.
