TABLE 3.

Effects of starter feeding on the ruminal fermentation parameters and ruminal epithelium development in yak calves.

		Treatment		SEM	P-value
Items		RA	RAS
Ruminal epithelium	Papilla width (μm)	952.69 ± 105.45	824.07 ± 191.11	25.15	0.283
	Papilla length (μm)	569.82 ± 100.37	748.72 ± 128.53	33.29	0.049
	Muscle thickness (μm)	1915.07 ± 439.49	2031.12 ± 643.69	105.68	0.757
Ruminal fermentation characteristics	pH	7.35 ± 0.12	7.35 ± 0.116	0.03	0.978
	Ammonia nitrogen, NH3-N (mg/dL)	2.46 ± 0.28	3.29 ± 0.23	0.16	0.001
	Total VFA (mmol/L)	57.40 ± 5.27	50.23 ± 5.25	2.07	0.081
	Acetate (mmol/L)	35.78 ± 3.51	29.60 ± 1.05	0.23	0.034
	Propionate (mmol/L)	9.39 ± 1.29	8.28 ± 1.07	0.44	0.232
	Butyrate (mmol/L)	5.41 ± 1.55	4.62 ± 1.18	0.43	0.389
	Isobutyrate (mmol/L)	1.53 ± 0.084	1.54 ± 0.25	0.06	0.936
	Valerate (mmol/L)	3.58 ± 0.43	4.23 ± 0.05	0.15	0.021
	Isovalerate (mmol/L)	1.20 ± 0.14	1.27 ± 0.17	0.05	0.592