Isolation and Identification of Keratinolytic Bacteria that Exhibit Feather-degrading Potentials

Aims: To isolate and identify feather degrading bacteria from soils collected from the feather dumping site.

Study Design: Isolation and preliminary identification of bacterial isolates with keratinolytic potentials.

Place and Duration of Study: Mudalawal poultry processing site, Bauchi state, Nigeria, between January 2014 to October, 2014.

Methods: Soil samples from feather dumping sites were screened for bacterial growth. The isolated bacteria were identified based on their morphological and biochemical characteristics and were tested for their ability to degrade whole intact feather and powdered feather samples.

Results: The results showed that three (3) of the isolates belonged to the genus Bacillus which include; Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus cereus, while one isolate is a Gram-negative rod, Serratia marcencens. Although B. licheniformis demonstrated higher feather degrading ability but with no statistical difference from other isolates in degrading both powdered and intact whole feathers samples. Synergy among the isolates to degrade powdered feather showed no statistical difference (p=0.317). Also, synergy among all the isolates resulted in degradation of intact feather significantly higher than that of S. marcescens, but not significantly different from those of B. licheniformis (p=0.389), B. subtilis (p=0.096) and B. cereus (p=0.096). Moreover, the keratinolytic ability of the isolates on intact whole feather was time dependent. It was also observed that the rate of degradation of powder feather samples was significantly higher than the rate of degradation of intact whole feather by all the isolates (p=0.026).

Conclusion: These isolates are therefore promising organisms for the management of chicken feather waste through biotechnological processes.