Influence of heat stress on intestinal integrity and the caecal microbiota during Enterococcus cecorum infection in broilers

Table 3 Selected phyla on different sampling days

Phylum	dph	Noninoculated, thermoneutral (%)	Noninoculated, heat stress (%)	EC-inoculated, thermoneutral (%)	EC-inoculated, heat stress (%)	p value
Firmicutes	42	71.8 ± 4.3^a	68.0 ± 3.0^a	94.1 ± 2.0^b	71.2 ± 4.8^a	0.0004
Proteobacteria	42	2.1 ± 1.0^ab	0.2 ± 0.1^a	2.5 ± 1.0^ab	1.8 ± 0.6^b	0.0153
Bacteroidota	42	25.8 ± 4.5^a	30.8 ± 3.0^a	0.1 ± 0.1^b	24.5 ± 4.5^a	0.0001
Verrucomicrobiota	14	0.0 ± 0.0^a	0.0 ± 0.0^a	0.0 ± 0.0^a	8.1 ± 2.1^b	0.0001
	21	0.0 ± 0.0^a	0.0 ± 0.0^a	2.6 ± 0.8^b	5.8 ± 1.4^b	0.0001
	42	0.0 ± 0.0^b	0.6 ± 0.3^a	2.1 ± 1.2^a	2.1 ± 1.0^a	0.0003
Actinobacteriota	7	3.1 ± 1.0^b	0.1 ± 0.0^a	0.2 ± 0.1^a	0.1 ± 0.0^a	0.0003
Actinobacteriota	14	0.0 ± 0.0^a	0.4 ± 0.0^b	0.3 ± 0.1^bc	0.3 ± 0.0^c	0.0001
Desulfobacterota	42	0.0 ± 0.0^a	0.0 ± 0.0^a	0.8 ± 0.1^b	0.1 ± 0.0^c	0.0001

Kruskal‒Wallis test and Mann‒Whitney U test, post hoc Benjamini‒Hochberg adjustment (α = 0.05). Different superscript letters indicate significant differences between groups per sampling day (p ≤ 0.05).
dph: days post-hatch.

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