Table 2.
Abundance of the major rumen microbial groups in goat kids reared in the absence (CTL) or presence of adult companions (CMP) at 5, 7, and 9 weeks of age (n = 16).
| Time | Week 5 | Week 7 | Week 9 | p -value | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Treatments | CTL | CMP | CTL | CMP | CTL | CMP | SEM | Treat. | Time | TxT |
| Microbes, log10 copy/g DM | ||||||||||
| Bacteria | 9.14 | 9.34 | 9.26 | 9.31 | 9.27 | 9.33 | 0.036 | 0.149 | 0.28 | 0.251 |
| Methanogens | 6.18c | 6.77a | 6.35bc | 6.65ab | 6.22c | 6.37bc | 0.051 | 0.020 | 0.467 | 0.039 |
| Protozoa | <4.0c | 6.87b | <4.0c | 7.25ab | <4.0c | 7.62a | 0.168 | <0.001 | <0.001 | 0.077 |
| Anaerobic fungi | 4.96 | 4.77 | 5.16 | 5.10 | 4.42 | 4.08 | 0.088 | 0.955 | 0.279 | 0.180 |
| Protozoa, log10 cell/ml | ND | 4.96 | ND | 5.12 | ND | 5.21 | 0.260 | 0.125 | ||
| Subf. Entodiniinae, % | ND | 95.3 | ND | 94.2 | ND | 89.8 | 4.740 | 0.598 | ||
| Subf. Diplodiniinae, % | ND | 4.37 | ND | 4.65 | ND | 6.28 | 0.403 | 0.315 | ||
| Ophryoscolex spp., % | ND | 0.30b | ND | 0.93b | ND | 3.20a | 0.161 | <0.001 | ||
| Isotricha spp., % | ND | 0b | ND | 0.19ab | ND | 0.54a | 0.051 | 0.056 | ||
| Dasytricha spp., % | ND | 0b | ND | 0.05ab | ND | 0.18a | 0.017 | 0.062 | ||
a−c
Means within a row with different superscripts differ (p < 0.05). ND, not detected.