Feather meal, Feathermeal, Hydrolyzed feather meal, Poultry feather meal, Hydrolyzed poultry feather meal, Keratin meal

Description: 

Unprocessed feathers are high in CP, but are highly indigestible. The primary protein that is found associated with feathers is keratin, which contains a high amounts of cystine (approximately 10%) the cross-linking of cystine is why the CP fraction of feathers is highly indigestible. When moist heat is applied at elevated temperatures the cross linkages between the cystine's are cleaved and the CP becomes readily digestible. Normally feathers are processed by cooking them in a pressurized chamber at 30 to 45 pounds/square/inch for 30 to 60 minutes and the resultant CP digestibility will be in excess of 75 % and normally runs between 80 to 85 %. After cooking the resultant meal is dried and ground. It has been observed that feather meal is unpalatable in some feeding applications, which seems to be truer in applications with monogastric than with ruminant. The gradual adjustment of animals to feather meal will help overcome any palatability problems and reduction in feed intake. Normally when feather meal is included in complete rations palatability is not a major problem. Molasses and fat can also be added to increase palatability. Feather meal is deficient in lysine, methionine, cystine, histidine and tryptophan for poultry (Kellems, 2000). The amino acid profile of feather meal is rather poorly balanced, so care needs to be observed when formulating rations using feather meal, to assure that the ration contains the proper balance and amounts of amino acids. Because of the poor amino acid profile feather meal is normally not included at no more than 5 to 7 % of a diet for monogastric animals (Aderibigbe and Chruch, 1983). Higher levels of feather meal can be fed to ruminant animals without depressing performance. Feather meal compares favorably with cottonseed meal as a protein source for ruminant animals (Aderibigbe and Church, 1983).It can normally be fed to ruminant animals in complete rations without any restrictions. 

Caution:

Feather meals needs to be tested (pepsin digestibility) to assure that it has been processed properly. Care need to be taken to select other supplemental protein sources that will complement to poor amino acid profile of the feather meal, when formulating rations. 

Source:  

Feathers are a by-product of broiler, turkey and poultry processing operations.

Feeding Experiments:  

Feather meal is commonly used in feeding monogastric and ruminant animals. Higher amounts can normally be fed to ruminant animals. Swine feeding trials found that when feather meal replaced soybean meal that ADG and FC declined (2) (AGRIS 97-120634) (Duangsmorn-Sinchermsiri, 1989). High levels (5 and 7.5 %) of dietary feather meal decreased digestibility of DM and CP, decreased loin eye area, decreased FC and decreased feed intake in swine (23) (AGRIS 96-125375) (Rachan-Buaban, 1988). Feather meal when fed up to 10% of diet didn't was not found to affect DDM or DCP of the diet in swine (3) (AGRIS 97-120633) (Rachan-Buaban, 1989). In growing-finishing swine rations feather meal could provide up to 25 % of the dietary protein with significantly affecting performance (9) (AGRIS 85-036686) (Khajarern, 1982). No difference in performance was observed when up to 4 % feather meal was fed to swine 0-4 weeks of age and up to 8 % could be fed to the 4 to 8 week old age group (9) (AGRIS 85-036686) (Khajarern, 1982). Levels up to 10 % of feather meal in the diets of swine didn't affect total diet DM or CP digestibility, but as feather meal increased the Biological Value of the dietary CP decreased (13) (AGRIS 97-120633) (Rachan-Buaban, 1989). Feeding a combination of feather and blood meals resulted in the best growth in calves (20) (AGRIS 91-052943) (Blasi, 1991). When feather meal was incorporated into liquid supplements to replace a portion of the CP provided by urea, average daily gain and reproductive performance was improved in mature beef cows (24) (AGRIS 96-072819) (Pate, 1995). Calves fed feather meal as their primary supplemental protein didn't respond to when supplemental lysine or methionine was fed (16) (AGRIS 1999-053668) (Klemesrud, 1998). The rate of gain in lambs was increased when feather meal replaced soybean meal (25) (AGRIS 95-117601) (Thomas, 1994). Feather meal was found to increase ADG when it replaced soybean meal and urea in sheep diets (14) (AGRIS 97-120617) (Pichit-Punsri, 1991). Supplementation with feather meal showed no effect on straw digestion in lambs (25) (AGRIS 95-117601) (Thomas, 1994). Wool fiber diameter and sulfur content of wool didn't differ in lambs fed feather meal (25) (AGRIS 95-117601) (Thomas, 1994). Feather meal has been found to be an effective supplemental protein source for lactating dairy cattle (22) (AGRIS 93-098458) (Harris, 1992). Combination of feather meal and blood meal was shown to be acceptable as a protein source in dairy cattle (6) (AGRIS 95-157830) (Johnson, 1994). Feeding a combination of feather meal and blood meal was found to increase milk production in dairy cattle (15) (AGRIS 1999-053693) (Grant, 1998). Pullets fed feather meal was found to grow satisfactorily, the addition of methionine was found to improve performance (18) (AGRIS 86-064409) (Jowaman, 1982). The effect of supplementing feather meal with 0.2 to 0.5 % methionine was found to increase carcass quality in broilers and egg weight and shell thickness in layers (17) (AGRIS 86-087422) (Miranda, 1981). Feather meal can provide up to 50 % of the supplemental protein for young growing duckling, 100 % for older growing ducks and 50 % in ducks that are laying (8) (AGRIS 85-036737) (Sucheep-Suksupath, 1980). Feather meal was found to between poultry by-product meal and blood meal in its feeding value (10) (AGRIS 84-094625) (Trzebiatowski, 1982).Feeding and Handling Characteristics: Pressurized cooking of feathers is the primary method of processing used in preparing feather meal. Some bacteria have been identified that produce a feather digesting enzyme, that will convert the protein fraction into a digestible form (21) (AGRIS 94-124803) (Shih, 1993). Pepsin digestibility is used as method of assessing the quality of feather meal. Normally a pepsin digestibility of 75 % is considered to be a minimum value to assure that the feather meal has been adequately processed. Variability of feather meal between batches and between plants can be quite high due to differences in what is included (heads, feet, skin, etc.).

Nutrient Characteristics:

As % of dry matter

DM

CP

CF

Ash

EE

NFE

Ca

P

Ref

Feather meal 

hydrolyzed 

90.5

86.1

0.3

2.5

3.6

0

--

--

--

(5) (AGRIS 90-007461) (Phichit-Pansri, 1987)

Hydrolyzed poultry

feathers

93.0

91.4

0.4

3.8

3.9

0.5

0.42

0.51

401

Poultry feathers

hydrolyzed 

93

91.3

1

--

--

--

0.28

0.72

--

(Kellems, 2000)

Feathers meal

CP=88.1 to 92.6%

(7) (AGRIS 95-125187) (Duangsmorn-Sinchermsiri, 1988)

Feathers meal

CP=76 to 87%

(19) (AGRIS 91-109757) (Han, 1991)

Nylon bag degradability

a

b

c

12hr

48hr

Ref

(%)

(%)

(/hour)

(%)

(%)

Feather meal

DM

9.8

6.4

0.0460

15.5

627

[P (rumen degradability at time t) = a+b*(1-exp(-c*t))]

Ruminal undegradability of protein (NRC, 1989)

Feather meal 0.71

Rumen undegradable protein (RUP) for feather meal = 77.4 %

(1) (AGRIS 1998-096481) (England, 1997)

Rumen escape protein for feather meal = 66.8 %

(16) (AGRIS 1999-053668) (Klemesrud, 1998)

Amino acid composition as % of crude protein

Arg

Cys

Gly

His

Ils

Leu

Lys

Met

Phe

Thr

Try

Tyr

Val

5.6

4.3

6.1

0.95

3.9

6.9

2.3

0.6

3.9

3.8

0.55

2.48

5.9

(Poultry NRC, 1994)

5.85

3.4

6.8

0.4

3.5

7.2

1.8

0.55

3.5

3.7

0.5

6.8

6.0

Ref (Latin American Tables of Feed Composition, 1974) University of Florida

CP = 88.7%,Lysine = 1.99%,Cystine = 4.83%,Methionine = 0.71% (Dry Matter Basis) 

(11) (AGRIS 97-166771) (Wang, 1997)

CP = 76 to 87 %, Lysine = 1.46 to 2.15 %, Cystine 4.07 to 5.3 %, Methionine = 0.45 to 0.61 % 

(19) (AGRIS 91-109757) (Han, 1991)

Feather meal PER = 0.97 and Pepsin Dig CP = 70 to 81 %(19)

(AGRIS 91-109757) (Han, 1991)

Digestibility coefficients (expressed as a %)

Animal

DDM

DOM

DCP

DCF

Feather meal

Sheep

80.1-83.8

82.3-83.0

85.0-85.3

67.4-71.8

(5) (AGRIS 90-007461) (Phichit-Pansri, 1987)

Feather meal

Sheep

76.85%

(14) (AGRIS 97-120617) (Pichit-Punsri, 1991)

Feather meal

Beef

71.5%

(4) (AGRIS 1999-053658) (Knaus, 1998)

References

42, 401, 498, 627

Abstracts

Availability(596)