Effect of Iodoform in Maize and Clover Grass Silages: An In Vitro Study

Iodoform has been shown to be an enteric methane reducing agent. This study aimed to inves-tigate if iodoform differentially affected maize (MS) and clover grass silage (GS). These substrates were used in four 22-hour in vitro gas production fermentations with and without 0.032 mg/g of dry matter substrate of 0.064% iodoform in zeolite (IZ). Results of organic matter degradation (dOM, g/g), volatile fatty acids (VFA, mMol/L), partitioning factor (PF, mg/mL), total gas pro-duction (TGP, mL/g OM), and periodic hydrogen and methane yield (mL/g OM) were evaluated. Interaction between substrate and IZ for dOM was significant with a significantly less in GS. In-teraction between substrate and additive was continuously significant for TGP. The additive in GS numerically decreased the TGP, but significantly increased TGP in MS. Interaction between sub-strate and additive was sporadically significant with methane, increasing yield when IZ was added to MS, but a consistent, non-significant, decrease in yield was found when IZ was added to GS. Total VFA production and propionate content increased in both substrates with the addition of IZ, but only significantly in GS. Iodoform significantly decreased efficiency of microbial con-version (PF) in both substates. Differential effects of iodoform on GS and MS were evident. More research is needed to determine modes of action of iodoform.