Fig. 8

Effect of delay in feed access for the first 48 h post-hatch on relative bacterial abundance (%) in ileal luminal (IL-L, a-d) and mucosal (IL-M, e–f) bacterial populations from day 1 (24 h) through day 14 (336 h) post-hatch at genus and species level. Taxonomic profile of chicken IL-L at (a) genus and (c) species level. Effect of delayed access to feed early post-hatch on (b) Clostridium and (d) Clostridium perfringens level in IL-L. Taxonomic profile of chicken IL-M at (e) genus and (h) species level. Effect of delayed access to feed early post-hatch on (f) Low Abundant Reads (LAR) and (g) Klebsiella level in IL-M. Asterisk denote statistically significant (P < 0.05) differences between fed (F) and not-fed (NF) chickens