Lactulose-enriched milk early guides the temporal microbiota development of maternal-deprived lambs

In this work, lambs were separated from their mother 2 days after birth. Newborns were next exclusively fed artificially with milk enriched or not with a prebiotic (lactulose 1%) until 20 days after birth (Post-Natal Week-03; PNW-03, defined as the bottle-fed stage). Then , a hay and pellet supplement was provided until weaning (56 days after birth, PNW-07, defined as the pre-weaning stage), when exposure to lactulose ended. During the post-weaning stage, the lambs'diet consisted of hay, pellets and straw (PNW-10). Feces were collected for 16S rRNA gene amplicon analysis at PNW-03, 07 and 10.