Fig. 2

Composition of the fecal microbiome of steers in study 1 and study 2. A Relative abundances of major phyla of bacteria detected in samples passing quality thresholds in study 1. Each bar represents an individual sample. Samples are grouped according to the time of sample collection. B Like A but for study 2. C, D the Chao1 and Shannon alpha diversity indexes for ASVs in samples from normal or abscessed steers at different study days from study 1. Boxes represent the interquartile range, and whiskers extend to minimum and maximum values, points outside 1.5 times the interquartile range are plotted individually. E, F Like C, D but for study 2. G The first two principal coordinates calculated on the Bray–Curtis dissimilarity matrix of the relative abundances of ASVs in samples from study 1. Colors represent different fecal sample collection times and symbols indicate abscess diagnosis of corresponding animals. Numbers in parentheses indicate the variance explained by the corresponding principal coordinate. The boxplot shows the distribution of samples collected at different time points on the first principal coordinate. H Like G but for study 2