Fig. 4

Box and whisker plots showing alpha diversity analysis based on Shannon index and observed OTUs of different treatments at 20,000 reads depth per sample of cecal contents of broilers at day 28 post-hatch in response to in ovo injection. The middle line of the box and whisker plot represents the median, the lower and upper hinges denote 1st and 3rd quartiles, respectively. The whiskers extending from the box show the highest and lowest value that falls within 1.5 times of the interquartile range. The black dots are the mean, while the colored circles represent individual values. The statistical significance was determined by the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test. The control is the no injection treatment group