Flavor supplementation during late gestation and lactation periods increases the reproductive performance and alters fecal microbiota of the sows, Animal Nutrition Journal, https://doi.Abstract 1 This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of flavor on reproductive performance 2 and fecal microbiota of sows during late gestation and lactation. A total of 20 healthy 20 potentially pathogenic bacteria in the sows. 21 22 J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f 42 microbiota undergoes a remarkable shift

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... during pregnancy and lactation periods (Santacruz 43 et al., 2010; Koren et al., 2012a), which might be passed onto the developing fetus or 44 J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f 65 assigned into a control group (CON) or flavor supplementary group (FLA) based on backfat 66 J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f 5 thickness. The individual sow was considered as an experimental unit, and there were 10 106 Beyond analysis, the data were tested for normality and homoscedasticity using the 107 Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Levene tests (with the significance level set at 5%). The t-test 108 was conducted to analyze the reproductive performance data by SPSS statistical software 109 (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). For the analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequencing data, data 110 J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f 7 were normalized by copy number. Phylum and genus at <1.0% relative abundance for both 111 diets at different stages were excluded from all analyses. Alpha diversity (Shannon, 112 Simpson, ACE, Chao, and Coverage) was assessed by Mothur (Version 1.35.0) (Schloss et 113 al., 2009). The differences of alpha diversity indices were determined by two-way ANOVA. 175-184. Host remodeling of the gut microbiome and metabolic changes during pregnancy. Cell 2012a; 150(3): 470-480.