November | December 2010

Feature title: Feather meal for fish feed

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The International magazine for the aquaculture feed industry

 F: Feathers
A new and revolutionary type of
feather meal for fish feed
by Franz-Peter Rebafka / Ashish Kulshrestha, GePro Gefluegel-Protein Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH & Co KG, Germany / Thailand
A
s costs for fishmeal
have skyrocketed due
to El Nino, earthquakes
in South America and a
situation where demand is outstrip-
ping supply, the interest in alternative
proteins in aquaculture has increased.
Reducing fishmeal dependency is becom-
ing more important for the profitability
and sustainability of the aquaculture indus-
try (Hardy and Kissil, 1996; Hasan, 2001,
Skretting, 2010).
An ingredient that has not received its
fair share of attention by fish nutritionists
in recent years is feather meal.
Feathers are by-products of the poultry
meat processing.
Annually large quantities of feathers are
available. In Germany, in 2009 for instance
close to 1.3 million tonnes - equivalent to 700
million birds – of broilers, turkey, layer hen
were slaughtered (Statistisches Bundesamt,
2009). At a rate of approximately 130g of
feathers for a 2kg bird the potential amount of
crude feathers is about 91,000 metric tonnes.
The whole EU is producing about
840,000 tonnes of crude feathers (a.v.e.c.
- Association of Poultry Processors and
Poultry Trade in the EU) equivalent to
260,000 tonness of feather meal.
Recently, an article has been published
on ‚Adding value to Feathermeal’ by drying
with optimal conditions using low tem-
perature (LT) drying technology (Rebafka &
Kulshreshtha, 2009).
16 | InternatIonal AquAFeed | november-December 2010
The beneficial effect of such an LT tech-
nology has been attributed to less degree in
damage of protein quality during LT drying,
which is performed within a few minutes
compared to a 60 minutes drying time in a
horizontal rotary disc dryer, usually used by
the industry.
It has been well documented that
variation in processing conditions can mark-
edly affect the digestibility of amino acids
in poultry feathers Latshaw, 1990; Han and
Parsons, 1990, 1991;Wang and Parson, 1997;
Waldroup and Yan, 2008.
Although unprocessed, feathers contain
up to 80 percent crude protein, the major
protein component of the protein fraction
is keratin which is not available and non-
digestible by fish in the native form. During
the production process of feather meal,
it is converted finally into a valuable feed
protein.
Feather meal is often considered to be an
inferior source of protein for fish and shrimps
because of its poor digestibility and essential
amino acid (EAA) content.
A theoretical comparison
between LT feather meal and
fishmeal indicates that EAA
in LT feather meal exceeds
those in fishmeal; within the
group of EAA a deficiency
is only given with lysine and
methionine (see Figure 1).
Even a comparison
between the demand of
EAA of fish and shrimps
and the offer of EAA within LT feather
meal indicate a balance within most EAA;
except lysine and methionine, where is a
need to balance via synthetic AA or other
types of animal proteins (eg blood meal to
compensate a Lys imbalance).
However, the deficiency of methionine
should not be overestimated, since cystine
can partly replace methionine (Abdelghany,
A.E. 2000), which is generally present in
large quantities in feather meal (four to six
percent).
Protein digestibility
In order to assess the quality of LT
feather meal versus regular feather meal,
several in-vitro tests on protein digestibility
have been conducted.
Heat processing, such as drying, has
been shown to have a negative impact on
the nutritional value of the amino acids in
animal feeds.
In feed that is heat processed, the
free - amino group of lysine can react with
the carbonyl group of other compounds
forming to a (Maillard) complex which may
be parti-ally absorbed but cannot utilized
by animals.
Moreover, a proportion of the com-
plexes formed can revert to lysine during
conventional analyses of protein digest-
ibility (eg pepsin digestibility) which does
not occur in the digestive tract of the
animal. This results in an overestimation of
the amount of lysine that is available to the
animal, if it is determined using conventional
methods.
In contrast, the ‚reactive lysine’ assay
(Ruther-furd and Moughan, 1997) provides
a superior estimate of the lysine available
for nutrition.
In the industry, the most common in-
vitro assay to determine protein digestibility is
november-December 2010 | InternatIonal AquAFeed | 17
the pepsin assay using
0.2 percent (AOAC)
or even 0.02 percent
(VdLUFA, III.4.2.1)
pepsin activity, although
there is only a small (eg.
Hendriks et al., 2002) or
particularly in feather
(own data) no correla-
tion between pepsin
nitrogen digestibil-
ity and the crude
protein digest-
ibility. However,
a combination of
both pepsin and
pancreatin known
as ‚Boisen digest-
ibility’ according
to Boisen and
Fernandez (1995)
seems to be much
more suitable for the determination of feather
protein quality.
In both ‚Reactive Lysin’ (no data pre-
sented) and ‚Boisen’ LT feather meal was
significantly superior to regular feather meal
(see Figure 3).
In order to estimate the potential of LT
feather meal to replace fishmeal in different
diets individual feeding trials in fish and
shrimps were conducted.
Feed trials
Feeding trials with White Pacific Shrimps
(Pennaeus vannamei) were carried out at
INTEQC Feed Ltd (Thailand) in coopera-
tion with the Department of Aquaculture,
Kasetsart University (Thailand). Hybrid
Tilapia (Oreo-chromis niloticus x Oreochromis
F: Feathers
aurea) were tested at the Aquaculture
Research Unit at Ginosar (Israel) and Nile
Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) at Nam Sai
Farms (Thailand).
Trials were carried out based on stand-
ard protocols. Details of the individual trials
can be requested by the authors.
All diets were based on a fishmeal refer-
ence (as control); treatments were designed
to be iso-nitrogineous and iso-caloric, but
with varying amounts of LT feather meal as
a replacement of fishmeal. All formulations
were set to satisfy the nutritional require-
ments of the targeted test species. During
the experiments fish weight and feed intake
were monitored to establish indices for
growth and performance.
During all trials, no mortality was
observed.
In White Shrimps, a replacement of 30
percent of a Thai local fishmeal (crude
protein 70 percent, crude fat: seven per-
cent) in a typical 38 percent crude protein
shrimp feed did not negatively affect growth
performance (see Figure 4 and 5) and
feed conversion (FCR) (see Figure 6). Total
length was even signifi-cantly (p < 0.05) best
in a diet with 9 percent LT feather meal
and 21 percent fishmeal compared to a
formulation with 30 percent fishmeal only
(See Figure6).
 F: Feathers
Hybrid Tilapia grown on a 35 percent
crude protein diet which has been formu-
lated either on a eight percent Peruvian
fishmeal diet or on a eight percent LT
feather meal diet performed similar. SGR,
Weight performance and FCR was not
affected at all by a complete replacement of
fishmeal by LT feather meal. (see Figure 7).
At Nam Sai Farms (Thailand) the per-
formance of a typical Nile Tilapia diet (30
18 | InternatIonal AquAFeed | november-December 2010
percent crude protein) based on 16 percent
tuna fishmeal (55 percent crude protein)
was compared against isonitrogenous and
isoenergetic diets in which LT feather meal
gradually replaced fishmeal.
According to the results a replacement
of fishmeal by LT feather meal up to 50
perent (in absolute figures: eight percent
out of 16 percent) was possible without
losing performance (see Figure8).
Conclusions
Feather meal is still not seen as a
favorable ingredient in Aquafeed because
of reasons concerning its poor digestibility
and a supposedly unbalanced composition
of amino acids. Indeed, own data indicates
that to a certain extent this is true and
cannot be ignored, particularly in case of
lysine.
However, this should not mean that
feather meal per se is “unsuitable“ in for-
mulations for fish and shrimps, especially
if feather meal is produced under optimal
conditions (such as LT drying).
Particularly, as a replacer of fishmeal
in Salmonids species there is a strong
evidence supporting the feasibility of using
feather meal as protein source without any
negative effects of performance. (Fowler,
1990; Bureau et
al., 2000; Data
from Chile).
Our results
clearly show that
LT feather meal is
indeed suitable to
replace fishmeal
at least to levels
up to an inclusion
of 10 percent in
fish and shrimp
formulations. As
a consequence
depending on the
costs for fishmeal
a relatively high reduction in formulation
costs can be expected.
For future development, the utilization
of biotechnological processes with keratin
degrading microorganisms (Bertsch and
Coello, 2005) during the process or with
keratin degrading proteases (Odetallah et
al., 2003) will be the way to go. These tech-
nologies might help to improve the quality
of feather meal in aqua-culture.
References
Abdelghany, A.E. (2000). Replacement value of
cystine for methionine in semi-purified diets
supplemented with free amino acids for the Nile
tilapia Oreochromis niloticus L. fry. pp.109-119.
In: K. Fitzsimmons and J.C. Filho (eds.). Tilapia
aquaculture in the 21st century.
Proc. from the 5th Intl. Symp. on Tilapia in Aqua-
culture. Rio deJaneiro, Brasil, 3-7, September 2000.
a.v.e.c. - Association of Poultry Processors and
Poultry Trade in the EU, Brussels.
Bertsch, A. and Coello, N. (2005). A biotechno-
logical process for treatment and recycling poultry
feathers as a feed ingredient. Bioresource Techno-
logy 96, 1703-1708.
Bureau, D. P., Harris, A. M., Bevan, D. J., Simmons,
L. A., Azevedo, P. A. and Cho, C. Y. (2000). Feather
meals and meat and bone meals from different
origins as protein sources in rainbow trout
(On-corhynchus mykiss) diets. Aquaculture 181,
281-291.
Boisen, S. and Fernandez, J.A. (1995). Prediction
of the apparent ileal digestibility of protein and
amino acids in feedstuffs and feed mixtures for
pigs by in vitro analyses. Animal Feed Science and
Technology 51, 29-43.
Fowler, L. G. (1990). Feather meal as a dietary
protein source during parr-smolt transformation
in fall chinook salmon. Aquaculture 89, 301-314.
Han, Y., and Parsons, C.M. (1990).
Determination of available amino acids and
energy in alfalfa meal, feather meal and poultry
byproduct meal by various methods. Poult. Sci.
69, 1544-1552.
F: Feathers
aquaculture production: issues limiting increased
production. In: Biotechnology in the feed industry
(Lyons, T.P. & Jacques, K. A. (Eds.), 107-120).
Hasan, M. R (2001). Nutrition and feeding for
sustainable aquaculture development in the third
millennium. In. Aquaculture in the third millennium.
Technical proceedings of the conference on
aquaculture in the third millennium; NACA,
Bangkok and FAO, Rome.
Odetallah, N. H., Wang, J.J., Garlich, J.D., Shih, J. C.
H. (2003). Keratinase in starter diets improves
growth of broiler chicks. Poultry Sciences 82,
664-670.
Rebafka, F.-P. and Kulshreshtha, A (2009). Adding
Han, Y., and Parsons, C.M.(1991). Protein and value to feathermeal. Intern. Aquafeed, vol 12 (2),
amino acid quality of feather meals. Poult. Sci. 70, 14-17.
812-822. of feather meal noted. Feedstuffs, vol. 80, no. 29,
Rutherfurd, S.M. and Moughan, P.J. (1997).
July 21 (Reprint).
Hendriks, W.H., Butts, C.A., Thomas, D.V., James, Digestible reactive lysine in processed feedstuffs:
K.A.C., Morel, P.C.A and Verstegen, M.W.A. ( Application of a new bioassay. J. Agric. Food Wang and Parson, 1997). Wang, X., and C.M.
2002). Nutritional quality and variation of meat Chem., 45, 1189-94. Parsons. 1997. Effect of processing systems on
and bone meal. Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci., vol 15 protein quality of feather meals and hog hair
Skretting, (2010). Skretting: fishmeal mix below
(10), 1507-1516. meals. Poult. Sci.76, 491-496.
10 percent. Fish Farming International, July 2010,
Latshaw, J.D.(1990). Quality of feather meal as iss. 7, p.16.
affected by feather processing conditions.
Statistisches Bundesamt (2009). Fachserie 3, Reihe More inforMation:
Poult. Sci. 69, 953-958. 4.2.3.
Website: www.ge-pro.de
Email: franz-peter.rebafka@ge-pro.de
Hardy, R. W. and Kissil, G. (1996). Trends in world Waldroup, P.W. and Yan, F. (2008). Nutritive value
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