Effects of dietary replacement of soybean meal with dried distillers grains with solubles on the microbiota occupying different ecological niches in the rumen of growing Hu lambs

Table 5 Effect of replacing soybean meal with dried distillers grains with solubles on the absolute abundance total bacteria, sulfur-reducing bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and methanogens (log₁₀ copies of the target genes/g sample) in different ruminal ecological niches of growing Hu lambs

Item	Protein source (PS)			Ruminal ecological niche (REN)				P-value
Item	SBM	DDGS	SEM	Solid	Liquid	Epithelial	SEM	PS	REN	PS × REN
Total bacteria	12.32	12.31	0.066	12.81^a	12.31^b	11.83^c	0.073	0.76	< 0.01	0.44
Sulfur-reducing bacteria	8.50	8.62	0.138	8.24^b	8.03^b	9.42^a	0.154	0.41	< 0.01	0.89
Fungi	9.61	9.55	0.104	11.52^a	8.65^b	8.56^b	0.128	0.69	< 0.01	0.26
Protozoa	8.93	8.52	0.156	9.46^a	9.16^a	7.55^b	0.183	0.04	< 0.01	0.93
Methanogen	10.01	10.03	0.058	10.41^a	10.15^b	9.50^c	0.071	0.79	< 0.01	0.16

ISSN: 2049-1891