Isolation and Identification of Chicken Feather Degrading Organisms from Soil Sample

The daily consumption of chicken increases annually, as they are one of the cheapest and healthiest sources of protein. About 3 billion pounds of chicken feathers are generated every year in the world with a great percentage disposed as waste. Feathers can be disposed by incineration, controlled land filling, etc but they can conceive infectious agents and need special requirements from reaching the ground water. 90% of feather biomass constitutes primarily β-keratin, insoluble protein extensively cross-linked by disulfide bonds. Keratin is highly resistant to microbial degradation due to the tight packing of the protein chain either in alpha helix or beta sheet structures and their linkage by cystine bridges that have a high degree of cross linkages by disulfide bonds, hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions. The efficient degradation takes up to many years. Thus, an appropriate technique is needed to overcome this problem. . Biodegradation is an enzymatic degradation involving some microorganisms including bacteria, fungus. The enzyme involved in the degradation of keratin is called as keratinases. The work presented here is to isolate and identify chicken feather degrading organisms from soil sample. Seven soil samples were collected from different sites in and around Coimbatore and Tirupur district. Soil samples were serially diluted and different types of bacteria were isolated on nutrient agar medium and different fungal species were isolated on potato dextrose agar medium. The isolated bacterial species were then screened on skim milk agar and keratin agar medium. After identification of the bacterial and fungal species, they were screened on raw feather broth medium incorporated with chicken feathers. Finally, the organisms showing efficient degradation were chosen and used in the feather compost. The final component of the feather compost can be used as value added products like bio-fertilizers and animal feeds. This technique can be used to prevent feather accumulation in dumping sites