Production and evaluation of biodegraded feather meal using immobilised and crude enzyme from Bacillus subtilis on broiler chickens

Abstract

The management of solid wastes has been a major concern to many cities of the world due to daily increasing rural-urban migration and globalization. Due to a greater consumption of poultry meat, the disposal of feather wastes has contributed to the daily increasing environmental pollution. Agricultural wastes (such as poultry feathers) are disposed by burning, which consequently constitute environmental pollution and their chemical or mechanical conversion into animal feed normally leads to minimization of amino acids. The application of biotechnology through the utilisation of enzymes is considered an easy and inexpensive means of producing valuable products from poultry feather wastes. Bacillus subtilis was isolated from a dumping site and the plates were incubated on nutrient agar. The treatments containing 200 mL each of crude enzyme, immobilized enzyme and sterilized water were added to the bioreactor for biodegradation of chicken feathers. After hydrolysis, the feathers were dried and the products labelled microbial biodegraded feather meal. The effect of temperature, keratinolytic activity and the influence of the immobilised and crude enzyme-degraded feather meal on broiler chickens were assessed. The optimal activity and biodegradative potential of the keratinolytic enzyme was observed as 45 oC and 48 h after fermentation, respectively. The weight gain of the birds fed immobilised enzyme-degraded feather meal-based diet compared with the control. The enzyme-degraded feather meal is safe for inclusion in broilers' diet and slight feeding manipulations could improve their performance.