Fig. 1

Vaginal and fecal microbial community alpha diversity measures between bred and open female cattle by stage. Diversity in the vaginal and fecal community was measured using Shannon index (a, c) and observed OTUs (b, d). The bottom and top of each box are the first and third quartiles, respectively, and the band inside the box is the median. Bred: cattle that were pregnant after the breeding season; Open: cattle that never established pregnancy. Vaginal and fecal swabs were collected at the sampling points (e.g. 1st trimester) from both pregnant and open cattle. The labels were defined based on the status of the pregnant cattle. Open cattle stayed open throughout the whole experiment