In a joint research project between the Institute of Agricultural Engineering (ILT) and the Institute of Nutritional and Food Science (IEL), cooperative activities of lactic acid bacteria will be described and elucidated over a period of 3 years starting in July 2023, using silage formation as an example. Lactic acid bacteria play an important role in the production of feed as well as in the refinement of food. While the function of individual species is well known, the synergistic cooperation of different lactic acid bacteria has been little studied. With the help of newly developed mini-bioreactors, ensiling processes are simulated on a laboratory scale in order to clarify interactions such as cooperation, but also inhibitory effects between the groups of microorganisms involved and to use them for a technological improvement of the ensiling process.
The project is supervised by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Büscher (ILT), Prof. Dr. Dr. Yurui Sun (ILT) and Prof Dr. André Lipski (IEL) and is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).