Influence of the applied pressure of processing upon bioactive components of diets made of feathers

The feathers gained by slaughtering fattening chickens can be processed into protein meal for feeding certain animals, as indicated by its chemical characteristics. However, raw feather proteins (keratin) are faintly digestible (cca. 19%), even inert in digestive tract. Digestion of feather proteins could be improved by hydrolysis (alkaline, enzymatic, microbiological or hydrothermal). Practically, hydrothermal processing of raw feathers is mostly applied. The influence of hydrothermal processing under the pressures of 3.0, 3.5 or 4.0 bar on the nutritive value of the resulting meal is presented in this paper. For the hydrolysis of raw feathers, semi continuous procedure was applied. Semi continuous procedure of feathers processing comprise hydrolysis of raw wet feathers followed by partial drying of hydrolyzed mass that has to be done in a hydrolyser with indirect heating. Continuous tubular dryer with recycled air was used during the final process of drying. Protein nitrogen decreased by 3.46% and 4.80% in comparison with total protein nitrogen content in raw feathers under the pressure of 3.0 and 3.5 bar, respectively. The highest applied hydrolysis pressure caused the greatest loss of protein nitrogen up to 9.52%. Hydrothermal hydrolysis under pressure has increased in vitro protein digestibility significantly. Under pressure of 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0 bar digestibility of proteins increasing from 19.01 to 76.39, 81.71 and 87.03%, respectively. Under pressure of 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0 bar cysteine content decreased from 6.44 to 4.17% (loss 35.25%), 3.94 (loss 38.825%) and to 3.75% (loss 41.77%), respectively. These decreases are statistically significant. It can be concluded that the hydrolysis carried out under the pressure of 3.5 bar, during the period of 25 minutes, and with the content of water in raw feathers of cca. 61% is the optimal technological process for converting raw feathers into diets for certain animal diets.