Table 1.

Biodiversity of microbial communities in feces affected by β-glucan diets.

Alpha-diversity1	Diet2				SEM3	P-value4
	WR Control	3 g LMW	5 g LMW	3 g HMW
Chao1	2502	2594	2548	2730	122	0.22
Good’s coverage	0.85	0.84	0.84	0.83	0.01	0.14
Observed species	865	893	881	931	33	0.16
Shannon	7.45	7.54	7.51	7.68	0.19	0.36
Simpson	0.98	0.98	0.98	0.98	0.003	0.58

¹Chao1 and Good’s coverage are the richness indices; Shannon and Simpson are diversity estimators.

²Diets include: Wheat and rice control (WR Control), 3 g/d low molecular weight barley β-glucan (3 g LMW), 5 g/d low molecular weight barley β-glucan (5 g LMW), 3 g/d high molecular weight barley β-glucan (3 g HMW). Data are presented as mean values.

³SEM, standard error of means.

⁴P-values are shown for the diet effect between groups analyzed by mixed model ANCOVA with period and the interaction of period × diet as fixed factors.