A note on the nutritional value of enzymatically hydrolyzed feather meal for broiler chickens

Abstract

Three groups of broiler cockerels, 96 birds each, were kept in cages (8 birds each). Diets containing autoclaved feather meal (F), autoclaved and enzymatically hydrolyzed feather meal (FE), and meat-and-bone meal (MBM- control) were fed ad libitum for six weeks. Crude protein of feather meals or MBM made up 14% of the crude protein in Starter and Grower, and approximately 16% in Finisher diets. In the first two weeks of life broilers fed diets F and FE had worse performance (P≤0.05) than the control group. At six weeks of life, mean body weight was 2032 g and feed conversion ratio 1.8 kg/kg; there were no significant differences between groups. Feeding diets containing FE had no effect on performance, however, the in vitro digestibility of crude protein was better than that of autoclaved feather meal.