Fig. 5

Differential enrichment of the cecal microbiota in healthy and NE-infected chickens supplemented with DCA or butyrate. Day-of-hatch male Cobb broilers were supplemented with or without 1 g/kg NaB, 0.75 g/kg DCA (DCA1), 1.5 g/kg DCA (DCA2), or a mixture of 1 g/kg NaB and 0.75 g/kg DCA (NaB + DCA1) or 1 g/kg NaB and 1.5 g/kg DCA (NaB + DCA2). Six groups of animals were subjected to NE, while the remaining group was mock-infected. The cecal digesta were collected from 12 animals/group on d 17. LEfSe analysis was performed with the top 50 ASVs in the d 17 cecal digesta among different groups of chickens (n = 12), with cut-offs of P < 0.05 and a logarithmic LDA score of 3.0