Early Methanogenic Colonisation in the Faeces of Meishan and Yorkshire Piglets as Determined by Pyrosequencing Analysis

Table 3

Relative abundances (percentage) of M. smithii-, M. thaueri-, M. millerae-, and M. olleyae-related OTUs in the 16S rRNA gene libraries from faecal methanogens of Meishan and Yorkshire piglets.

Breed	Age (d)	Relative abundance within total methanogens
		M. smithii-related OTUs	M. thaueri-related OTUs	M. millerae-related OTUs	M. olleyae-related OTU
Meishan	1	1.81	61.11	18.43	1.67
	3	8.13	26.79	23.68	26.25
	7	26.28	57.54	7.29	0.000
	14	78.51	7.52	6.99	0.000
Yorkshire	1	3.68	33.01	27.72	10.25
	3	16.89	18.95	24.87	5.35
	7	88.41	0.79	3.74	0.13
	14	94.27	0.02	0.85	0.000
SEM^1		41.67	31.78	16.06	14.53
Effect (P value)	Breed	0.003	0.010	0.969	0.521
	Age	0.000	0.020	0.009	0.081
	Breed × age	0.017	0.198	0.715	0.173

1SEM: standard error of means, 𝑛=4.