Fig. 3

PCoA for each horses illustrating the individual horse effect of withholding feed on the beta diversity of the two groups (control red; feed withheld blue). Numbers associated with the data points represent the samples shown in Fig. 6. Of note is that in general the control samples (red) are more tightly clustered and the data points move further away from control cluster with increase in duration of feed withholding time i.e. the points 2.10, 2.11, 2.12 [late withheld], 2.13, 2.14, 3.1, 3.1a, 3.1b [early refed] are generally furthest from the control samples and represent the late withholding-early refeeding period (20–30 h post beginning withholding feed). Data point 3.4 (study completion) is closer to the control cluster suggesting that within 24 h the microbiota returns to the control sample population. Also, of note is the 0 and 1.1 time points for the control group which were taken when the horse was first brought into the stall; the effect of moving horses from outside to inside warrants further analysis. All horses had a similar PCoA pattern