Chemical and microbiological changes during solid substrate fermentation of wheat straw with Coprinus fimetarius

The solid substrate fermentation (SSF) of urea-treated wheat straw (UTWS) with Coprinus fimetarius inoculation under non-sterile conditions can bring about an increase in crude protein, digestability and digestible protein. The significant increase in the chitin and the biomass content of fermented straw correlated with the good growth of the C. fimetarius, which resulted in dry matter loss of 19·32% on day 10 of the SSF. The inoculated mould comprised 65% of the fungal isolates and from among the other native fungi identified, only Aspergillus flavus showed toxin production in pure culture. Hence, the SSF of the UTWS with C. fimetarius, as a two-stage process, can be practised at ambient temperature under non-sterile conditions.