Feather meal
Feather meal, feathermeal, hydrolyzed feather meal, poultry feather meal, hydrolyzed poultry feather meal
Feathers are a by-product of broiler, turkey and poultry processing operations. Variability of feather meal between batches and between plants can be quite high due to differences in what is included (heads, feet, skin, etc.).
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 . 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.
| Main analysis | Unit | Avg | SD | Min | Max | Nb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dry matter | % as fed | 92.1 | 1.9 | 88.3 | 95.7 | 107 |
| Crude protein | % DM | 85.7 | 5 | 73.8 | 96.5 | 118 |
| Crude fibre | % DM | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 2.9 | 18 |
| NDF | % DM | 55.8 | 1.9 | 53.8 | 57.5 | 3 |
| ADF | % DM | 6.5 | 2.9 | 2 | 11.7 | 10 |
| Lignin | % DM | 5.5 | 2.2 | 4.1 | 8 | 3 |
| Ether extract | % DM | 6.7 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 13.6 | 46 |
| Ether extract, HCl hydrolysis | % DM | 9.5 | 1.8 | 4.8 | 12.9 | 57 |
| Ash | % DM | 5.5 | 3.8 | 1.3 | 16 | 115 |
| Total sugars | % DM | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 4 |
| Gross energy | MJ/kg DM | 23.5 | 0.4 | 22.7 | 24 | 18 |
| Minerals | Unit | Avg | SD | Min | Max | Nb |
| Calcium | g/kg DM | 12.7 | 4.1 | 3.6 | 16.8 | 22 |
| Phosphorus | g/kg DM | 8.2 | 1.9 | 2.6 | 8.8 | 22 |
| Potassium | g/kg DM | 1.3 | 0.2 | 1 | 1.5 | 10 |
| Sodium | g/kg DM | 1.3 | 0.2 | 1 | 1.4 | 10 |
| Magnesium | g/kg DM | 0.9 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 4.5 | 10 |
| Manganese | mg/kg DM | 16 | 6 | 7 | 21 | 7 |
| Zinc | mg/kg DM | 142 | 20 | 106 | 157 | 7 |
| Copper | mg/kg DM | 10 | 1 | 7 | 11 | 6 |
| Iron | mg/kg DM | 625 | 213 | 246 | 833 | 6 |
| Amino acids | Unit | Avg | SD | Min | Max | Nb |
| Alanine | % protein | 4.6 | 0.3 | 4.1 | 5.3 | 19 |
| Arginine | % protein | 6.7 | 0.4 | 5.6 | 7.4 | 24 |
| Aspartic acid | % protein | 6.7 | 0.2 | 6.5 | 7 | 19 |
| Cystine | % protein | 4.3 | 0.3 | 4 | 5 | 23 |
| Glutamic acid | % protein | 10.6 | 0.9 | 8.6 | 11.6 | 19 |
| Glycine | % protein | 7.3 | 0.5 | 6.1 | 8.3 | 21 |
| Histidine | % protein | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 1.4 | 24 |
| Isoleucine | % protein | 4.9 | 0.4 | 3.5 | 5.3 | 25 |
| Leucine | % protein | 8 | 0.5 | 7.3 | 9.2 | 26 |
| Lysine | % protein | 2.1 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 2.6 | 27 |
| Methionine | % protein | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 1 | 26 |
| Phenylalanine | % protein | 4.7 | 0.4 | 3.9 | 5.4 | 25 |
| Proline | % protein | 9.4 | 0.3 | 8.8 | 10 | 17 |
| Serine | % protein | 11.4 | 0.9 | 8.5 | 12 | 19 |
| Threonine | % protein | 4.6 | 0.4 | 3.7 | 5.3 | 26 |
| Tryptophan | % protein | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 7 |
| Tyrosine | % protein | 2.5 | 0.3 | 2.1 | 3.3 | 18 |
| Valine | % protein | 7.2 | 1.1 | 5.1 | 8.1 | 25 |
Annually more than 1 million tons of feathers are produced as by-product from European poultry slaughterhouses. The amount of feather as by-product rises steadily with increasing poultry consumption. On the other hand, the increasing consumption of meat products requires more livestock and therefore also increasing amounts of protein rich feed is needed.
Feathers contain 85% – 90% keratin. Keratin is a structure protein which contains proteins needed by animals but it cannot be digested directly. Therefore hydrolysis of keratin is needed to make it digestible. In that process the disulphide bonds in the keratin are broken and amide bonds are broken to form more digestible smaller proteins, peptides and amino acids.
Processed feather proteins are used as feed ingredient for pet food, aqua diets and feed for fur animals. Eight essential amino acids in feather protein meal (ARG, ILE, LEU, PHE, THR, VAL TRP and CYS) are present in higher amounts than in fish meal. However, due to the unbalanced amino acid composition of feather, e.g. lack of three other essential amino acids, LYS, MET and HIS, feather meal is only part of complementary feed composition.
The conventional industrial feather protein processing method is thermal pressure hydrolysis. However, during the heating in that process the nutritional value of the feather proteins decreases significantly.
- Polypropylene bags with an insert/paper laminates, net weight of up to 50 kg
- Soft polypropylene containers (big bags) net weight of up to 1,000 kg or as agreed with the customer
- In Bulk
Packaging has the manufacturer’s logo and a label inserted into the seam with standard consumer information.
Shelf life: 12 months as of the manufacturing date.
Storage: in a ventilated room in the original packing at a temperature below 25°С and relative air humidity below 75%.