Pertiwi et al., 2017. Livest. Res. Rural Dev., 29 (12): 224

Raw feather waste has been an environmental problem as the production of feather has been increasing from year to year due to increased population of poultry. Since feather meal is considered to be a low-quality feedstuff, hydrothermal processing with enzymatic treatment is one of the ways to improve its quality Two studies were conducted to determine the effects of enzymatically hydrolyzed feather meal (EFM) on feed intake, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR), carcass weight and carcass percentage (Experiment 1), feather percentage and total number of pinfeathers (Experiment 2). In experiment 1, a total of 108 day-old local Bali ducks were used and placed in the pens and the same number of ducks was used in the experiment 2. The ducks were kept for 10 weeks and fed the experimental diets. The experimental diets were the same in both experiments; CTL: control basal diet, EFM01: basal diet + treated feather meal with 0.01% enzyme (Allzyme FD) and EFM02: basal diet + treated feather meal with 0.02% enzyme. Parameters measured were feed intake, protein intake, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio and carcass percentage in experiment 1 and feather percentage and number of pinfeathers in experiment 2. A completely randomized design was used with 3 different treatment diets and 6 replicate cages in both experiments. Any significance found in the analysis of variance was further tested by Tukey Test.

Results indicated that the supplementation of the diets with enzymatically hydrolyzed feather meal (EFM01 and EFM02) improved feed intake, protein intake, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio and carcass percentage. Ducks fed EFM02 had better body weight gain and FCR than those of ducks fed the EFM01. In experiment 2, ducks fed the enzymatically hydrolyzed feather meal had more and heavier feather production at weeks 7 and 8, but less numbers of protruding pinfeathers and non-protruding pinfeathers than those ducks fed the control basal diet.

In conclusion, the supplementation of the diets with enzymatically hydrolyzed feather meal increased duck performance, carcass percentage and feather percentage and decreased total number of protruding pinfeathers and non-protruding pinfeathers.