Standard vs specialized nutrition
At T7, intragroup analysis showed no differences Intergroup analysis of alpha diversity at T7 displayed no differences both in the microbial richness (Kruskal–Wallis test; Observed features index; The beta diversity of the microbiota of the two diet-based groups was evaluated comparing the intergroup distances by both taxonomic and phylogenetic approaches. Measures of species abundance (PERMANOVA; Bray–Curtis; Beta diversity analysis of BAL microbiota at T7. Distance boxplots showing standard nutrition (blue) and specialized (orange) groups. Bray–Curtis, These data are consistent with the results of the taxonomic analysis at T7, which showed the presence of comparable numbers of Phyla, Families and Genera between the two diet groups with different values of relative frequencies (Fig. Comparison of taxa relative frequencies between the specialized nutrition (orange) and standard nutrition (blue) groups at the Phyla 