Table 3. Effect of maternal rumen microbiota transplantation on rumen microbial fermentation of sika deer calves

Item	Treatment1)		p-value
	CON (n = 5)	FRF (n = 6)
pH	6.30 ± 0.13a	6.10 ± 0.11b	0.019
NH3-N (mg/dL)	7.72 ± 0.50	8.87 ± 1.54	0.152
VFAs levels (mmol/l)
Acetic acid	60.19 ± 13.47b	84.61 ± 3.05a	0.004
Propionic acid	17.82 ± 4.68	23.11 ± 4.92	0.120
Isobutyric acid	2.63 ± 0.59	3.05 ± 0.75	0.358
Butyric acid	4.47 ± 0.43b	8.75 ± 1.33a	0.006
Isovaleric acid	3.31 ± 1.50	4.53 ± 0.52	0.122
Valeric acid	2.13 ± 1.07b	4.02 ± 1.13a	0.027
Caproic acid	0.27 ± 0.36	0.38 ± 0.12	0.527
Total VFAs	90.82 ± 20.52b	128.40 ± 6.64a	0.005

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.
Means within a row with different superscripts differ (p < 0.05).
VFAs, volatile fatty acids.