V. PRABAKARAN AND T.S. BLESSY THAYALIN
Abstract
The present investigation was to isolate and to identify bacterial strains which were able to degrade insoluble keratin rich feather wastes into soluble keratin. Poultry feather keratin is highly resistant to degradation. The samples from poultry industries were collected and plated on feather meal agar plates. The well grown isolates on feather meal agar produced large clearing zone were selected for biodegradation studies. Two feather degrading bacterium were isolated from poultry waste and identified as Bacillus sp. The organisms were gram positive, rod shaped, highly motile and endospore forming. This novel keratinolytic isolate could be a potential candidate for degradation and utilization of feather keratin. The chemical changes in the functional groups during feather degradation were studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.