Comparison of fecal microbiota composition of blue sheep fed versus .

L. and (Piper) Stapf. are 2 common forages fed to blue sheep ( Hodgson, 1833) in captivity. However, the effect of these 2 forages on the gastrointestinal microbiota is largely unknown. We analyzed the diversity of the microbiota in the feces of captive blue sheep fed with (group F1) and (group F2) by 16S rRNA sequencing. A total of 20 major phyla and 29 genera fecal bacterial communities were detected in the 2 groups. The F1 and F2 groups shared common microbiota at the phylum level, which mainly consisted of and . _UCG-005, _group, _UCG-013, and _UCG-010 were the top 4 dominant taxa at the genus level. The percentage of _UCG-010 was significantly higher in the F2 group (∼2.75-fold) than in F1 group. The diversity and abundance of the microbial community in F2 was higher than that in F1. Although both of and affect the metabolism of the gastrointestinal microbiota of blue sheep, the improves more aspects of metabolism and biogenesis. In summary, our results demonstrated that and affect blue sheep gastrointestinal microbiota in different ways. But efficiently improved the gastrointestinal microbiota of blue sheep.