Table 2. Effect of maternal rumen microbiota transplantation on body weight (BW) and average daily gain (ADG) of sika deer calves

Item	Growth period (wk)	Treatment1)		p-value
		CON (n = 5)	FRF (n = 6)
BW (kg)	0	5.85 ± 0.44	6.64 ± 1.37	0.292
	1	6.80 ± 0.28	7.56 ± 1.45	0.324
	2	8.22 ± 0.49	9.10 ± 1.58	0.306
	3	9.57 ± 0.81	10.45 ± 2.03	0.434
	4	10.47 ± 1.01	11.17 ± 2.27	0.580
	5	11.42 ± 1.31	11.78 ± 2.19	0.761
ADG (kg/d)	0 to 5	0.16 ± 0.03	0.15 ± 0.02	0.471

n, the number of sika deer calves; CON, control group sika deer calves inoculated without fresh rumen fluid and were grown separately from mother deer over the trial; FRF, fresh rumen fluid group sika deer calves inoculated with fresh rumen fluid and were grown separately from mother deer over the trial.