Impact of Dietary Fiber/Starch Ratio in Shaping Cecal Microbiota in Rabbits

This work aimed to study the response of the growing rabbit caecal ecosystem (bacterial community) after feeding four different NDF:starch diets on the dry mater (A: 2.3, B: 1.9, C: 1.4, D: 1.0). A total of 200 weaned rabbits (35 days of life, 50 per group) were used for experiment at 42 days after an adaptation period of 7 days. Caecal contents were obtained from rabbits fed different NDF/starch diets at 52,62,72,82 days of life, respectively. The bacterial community structure was characterized high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing. Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Synergistetes, and Tenericutes did not significantly change with diet or age. However, Bacteroidetes (PThe accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author