The Poultry Protein & Fat Council was established in 1989 by quality poultry byproduct renderers to
promote research and use of this valuable feed ingredient.


 

Literature Reviews

Poultry By-Products Composition
Feather Meal Composition
Feather Meal Digestibility
Feather Meal for Young Cattle
Digestibility of Feather Meal for Young Cattle
Feather Meal for Mature Cattle
Digestibility of Feather Meal for Mature Cattle
Feather Meal for Lambs and Sheep
Digestibility of Feather Meal for Lambs and Sheep
Feather Meal for Swine
Feather Meal for Fish
Feather Meal for Poultry
Feather Meal Digestibility for Poultry
Feather Meal for Goats
Poultry Meal Composition
Poultry Meal for Young Cattle
Poultry Meal for Mature Cattle
Poultry Meal for Lambs and Sheep
Poultry Meal for Swine
Poultry Meal for Fish
Poultry Meal Digestibility for Fish
Poultry Meal for Poultry
Poultry Grease for Ruminants
Poultry Grease Stability
Poultry Grease for Swine
Poultry Grease for Fish
Poultry Grease for Poultry
Egg Waste Composition
Hatchery Waste for Poultry
Hatchery Wastes for Goats
Hen Meal Composition
Hen Meal for Poultry
Blood Meal for Ruminants

 

 

 
Feather Meal Composition
234

Broiler age affects the amino acid composition of feathers. Histidine, Lysine and Methionine feather contents were particularly high at 14 days. Compositions were fairly constant from 28 to 112 days of age. No significant strain or sex differences were noted.

214 An excellent review of feather meal processing detailing how processing affects composition and digestibility of feather meal.

274 The typical assay for amino acids uses a performic acid oxidation followed by acid hydrolysis in 6NHCL. 95% of lanthionine sulfone may be converted to cysteic acid by heating. Therefore feather meal cystine may be overestimated and lanthionine underestimated.

293 A comparison of feather and blood meals from two different sources in Maryland.

296 An excellent paper on the amino acid composition and pepsin digestibility of feather meal samples processed with different temperatures and moisture levels over time. Generally, longer times resulted in increased digestibility, but less methionine and cystine. For some reason, histidine and lysine contents appeared to increase with time.

314 In vivo assay of cystine availability in feather meal. Five commercial samples varied in sulfur amino acid content from 0.92% to 4.01% (DM) and from 41% to 82% availability. Available sulfur containing amino acid content was inversely related to pepsin digestibility.

351 The classic paper in this area. Five feather meal samples were analyzed. Analyses were by microbiological methods except tryptophan.



Feather Meal Digestibility (Back to Top.)

22 In vitro and in situ techniques were used to evaluate feather meal processed under different conditions. Under the best conditions, the pepsin digestibility of feather meal was 89.3% compared to 82.3% for soybean meal and 98.5% for egg white protein. The authors conclude that this technique, using ammonia, could double the digestibility (and value) of feather meal. However, a direct comparison of commercial samples and samples prepared using the ammonia pressurization/depressurization technique was not made.

23 Review article. This is an excellent article discussing the potential for microbial enzymes to process feathers instead of current hydrothermal methods. The paper concludes with suggestions for furthering biotechnological approaches fro processing feathers, pointing out problems that need to be overcome. The authors conclude "the microbial enzyme technology to low-energy-consuming and environmentally friendly", but that remains to be seen and will only work if yields are acceptable.

78 Key paper. Excellent research and important conclusion: "The heterogeneous behaviour of the individual response criteria to the different processing variables leads to the conclusion that the processing conditions of feather meal can only be optimized after defining criteria by which the product will be judged". A series of equations were developed showing what happens to feather meal composition as functions of time and processing conditions. Basically, the conditions to maximize pepsin digestibility are not the same as those to maximize the amounts of digestible amino acids.

104 As the authors state: "From our results, it cannot be determined whether the MMI, IIV, or IS technique best predicted in vivo RUP or animal response". However, the results of the three particular experimental methods they used gave similar results and were highly correlated. The authors conclude that because pepsin digestibility of the feather meal samples were low, feather meal may not be useful as a source of rumen indigestible protein. However, pepsin digestibility of feather meal was actually higher than soybean meal; but that was before the samples were digested modified by rumen microorganisms anyway.

146 This paper is very similar to paper 78, but no data as included. It probably refers to the data in paper 78.

173 A combination of 40% urea with 60% feather meal met or exceeded results obtained with soybean meal for in vivo and in vitro tests.

203 Another study comparing methods: pepsin-pancreatin combinations vs. rumen fluid from a steer vs. in vivo digestibility by sheep. Good correlations were found among the methods studied. The critical question of how big a difference in ingredient quality could be detected by the in vitro methods and how big would the effect or performance, is not addressed.

268 A follow-up to paper 78 in which different conditions (longer processing time) were found to optimize feather meal composition. Any reason for the differences was not discussed and is not obvious.

5002 This is a paper on the Stord Bartz Feathrolizer, which reportedly gives processed product with the same composition as batch processors except for methionine and cystine. The paper says twice as much methionine and cystine (total) is present in feather meal produced using the Stord Bartz Featrolyzer. An interesting point made is that excessive cystine degradation occurs if feathers are processed to give pepsin digest abilities above 70% (using 0.2% pepsin).

5003 This paper contains a table giving analytical data on lysine, methionine, cystine and pepsin digest abilities of feather meal samples from 1961 to 1987. Available total sulfur containing amino acids ranged from 11 to 95%. The paper points out that pepsin digestibility in the range of 65 - 75% may indicate maximum nutritional value if low hydrolyzing pressure was used and the meal were not over dried.



Feather Meal for Young Cattle (Back to Top.)

84 Cattle fed molasses containing feather meal had faster gains, and heifers had heavier live weights at breeding and higher pregnancy rates than cattle fed molasses and urea. There was an advantage to combining blood and feather meals.

253 This recent study utilized hen feathers, the composition of which is given. In vitro and in situ digest abilities of feather meal and feather and blood meal are given.

206 This economic study concludes that feeding feather meal in place of soybean meal or urea may be worthwhile. By feeding 75% feather meal and 25% urea, $15.47 extra profit per calf was achieved.

85 Very nice study conducted in two separate years to show consistency of responses and variability that might be expected. When blood and feather meal was added to molasses slurries, growing cattle performed better than when a comparable amount of soybean meal was added. Increases were 50 - 80 g per day, a considerable amount over the approximately 100 day growing periods.

80 In this study feather meal was fed to steers as part of an animal by-products supplement with blood and meat and bone meal. The animal by-products supplement was fed at different levels. The steers responded nicely to the supplements. However, the statistical analysis is brief and quite incomplete; at least considering that it would have been very nice to have equations from the data to calculate the expected returns from feeding different levels of the supplement. With prediction equations it would be possible to calculate the point of economic efficiency with different cost and return scenarios.

81 Feather meal supplements were as good as or better than cottonseed meal supplements for promoting growth in steers. Responses to both protein sources were linear, indicating a maximum growth plateau had not been reached. Feather meal and cottonseed meal were fed as part of liquid cane molasses-based supplements. Steers main source of feed was ammoniated hay.

95 Feather meal was supplemented to large frame finishing cattle as part of a 60:40 blood to feather meal combination. The trial lasted 199 days. During the first 41 days, calves supplemented with the urea, blood, feather meal combination were more efficient than those given urea alone. After 41 days, no differences between urea and the combination were observed.

97 Results of a single study are presented, a 2 x 2 x 8 factorial with empty cells and significant interactions. Unfortunately, only main effect means are presented. The authors conclude that supplementing with soybean meal, feather meal and urea, or bone meal, feather meal and urea is better than supplementing with feather meal and urea. Of course the conclusions are based on the particular amounts that they fed and do not necessarily reflect feeding levels that would maximize profits under any particular circumstances.

98 An interesting series of studies on feather meal blood meal and tryptophan for growing calves. Apparent digest abilities of feather meal, soybean meal, blood meal and meat and bone meal were similar, but results are based on single samples with no indication of variability. Gains were better for feather meal supplements than for meat and bone meal, a feather meal/meat and bone meal combination, or for soybean meal.

99 This study only used levels of feather meal to produce different growth rates to compare with plasma amino acid levels. It is quite fascinating that plasma histidine and lysine plateaued at different feather meal intakes. The authors conclude that lysine must be the first limiting amino acid, but data showing a relationship between lysine intake and performance is not presented.

131 This paper reports results from three trials with growing calves. Feather meal and urea, and feather meal, blood and urea supplements were compared to urea alone, or soybean meal. In two-thirds calves fed soybean meal did better than all others for the first month, but there were no treatment effects thereafter. The authors conclude there is no advantage to feeding escape protein compared to urea alone. These calves were in feedlots and fed diets based primarily on rolled corn (approximately 80%), corn silage (5%) and alfalfa hay (5%).

142 In this study growing calves need escape protein supplements to maximize productivity on pasture. Feather meal was a minor component of the escape protein supplement, which was based on soybean meal.

188 Equivalent results between feeding soybean meal or a soybean meal/feather meal supplement were found in two trials with steer calves. However, in a third trial with heifer calves, when 9 or 19% of the supplement was feather meal, performance was reduced. The steer trials had diets containing corn silage and high moisture corn (Trial 1) or high moisture ear corn (Trial 3), but the heifers received a corn silage and cracked corn based diet. Reason for different results is not obvious although there are many possibilities due to uncontrolled factors between trials.

255 Hen feather meal was fed to calves from 7 to 120 days of age as 30, 60 or 100% of a supplement. No differences in calf growth were noted except that calves fed the 30% feather meal diet tended to perform better than the others.

259 Holstein steers fed low protein forage (4.8%) were supplemented with various mixtures of rumen degradable and undegradable protein. Feeding feather meal nicely increased dry matter intake and organic matter digestion. Unfortunately, no body weight gain data were given. The dry matter intake response was measured at different amounts of the supplements, so it isn't clear if more feather meal would result in performance equal to the amount of soybean meal fed.

288 Poultry, blood and feather meals were compared as protein supplements for dairy heifers fed corn silage. No differences were found among the poultry by-products blends and soybean meal, fish meal or meat and bone meal. In this study the diets were available for ad libitum consumption.

143 This study used lambs and calves to determine optimum hydrolyzing time for poultry feather meal and feather meal and blood meal combinations. Eighteen minutes was better than 12 or 15 minutes of hydrolysis for maximizing ruminal escape protein, although the authors concluded there were no nutritionally important effects. No differences in calf response were noted due to different combinations of feather and blood meals. The authors recommend using small amounts of blood meal with feather meal supplements.

308 A complicated study with a factorial design not presented or analyzed particularly well. One learns in the Results and Discussion that the feather meal used contains 10% blood. Supplementing feather meal for soybean meal resulted in better growth, regardless of whether estradiol was fed.

318 This paper describes two experiments with feeding feather meal to cattle - one with milking cows and the other with Holstein calves. The cow diets were based on corn silage, corn, alfalfa hay and soybean meal. Calf diets were based on ground corn and rolled oats. Feather meal lowered dry matter intake, but not milk production, indicating an increase in feed efficiency. Calves fed 5 (but not 8) % feather meal grew better during the 8 to 12 week stage, suggesting a longer adaptation period for calves, or amino acid requirements changed as the birds aged.

319 This is a review article by Sarah Muirhead in Feedstuffs Magazine. Daily gains were excellent for feather meal fed cattle in Perdue studies reviewed. This is an interesting article in that cost comparisons of various protein supplements are presented.

4005 A demonstration of how well growing calves do when supplemented with feather meal or feather and blood meals. Calculations of cost per unit gain are made for several supplements including soybean and sunflower meals. Feather meal compares very favorably.

4006 Growing cattle fed a mixture of feather meal and broiler litter grew just as well as those fed soybean meal. Why cattle performed better when fed broiler litter than when fed feather meal is not clear. Cost comparisons are needed to decide which supplements would be the most economical.

4011 A thorough study comparing urea, blood meal and feather meal supplements to soybean meal for finishing cattle. The authors conclude that feather meal can be used to insure that finishing cattle suffer no protein deficiencies. The carcass fat and quality measurements are very interesting and producers should add their own costs to such data to determine the point of economic efficiency.

4016 Industry Summary Only - Large study with 816 calves fed alfalfa hay and rolled corn. Feather meal supplements were just as good as soybean meal, and both were better than urea alone. The authors concluded "the long term use of feather meal in receiving, growing and finishing supplements appears to be very favorable."

4018 Industry Summary Only - Results of this study indicate that methionine is the limiting nutrient for cattle in poultry by-product meal or meat and bone meal combinations with feather meal. Calves fed feather meal performed better than those fed soybean meal or poultry by-product meal. The poultry meal is apparently of low value for ruminants because of its low by-pass valve.

4019 Industry Summary Only - Results of two trials with mixed results: Feather meal was a superior supplement to urea in both trials, however, feather meal and blood was better than feather meal alone in molasses-based supplement for steers in one trial but not the other.

4022 Industry Summary Only - Very interesting study on the responses of steers to feather and blood meals for calves from weaning to finishing. In two different years, responses to protein supplements were dependent on the energy source fed: dry rolled corn or dry rolled corn plus wet corn gluten feed. The authors conclude that escape protein supplementation may be necessary to ensure maximum performance.

4025 Industry Summary Only - Feather meal and sunflower meal supplements were compared to soybean meal supplements for cornstalk grazing cows and calves. Soybean meal fed cattle did slightly better than feather meal and sunflower meal supplemented ones. The differences were apparently due to chance and the authors conclude that "sunflower/feather meal is an acceptable alternative to soybean meal "… for calves and cattle grazing cornstalks."

4034 Industry Summary Only - In two trials with growing calves, it was shown that feather meal can provide more than half the sulfur-containing amino acids lacking in blood meal. Extra supplemental methionine further improved performance.

4037 Results of two trials with young cattle demonstrated that feather meal could be used to increase pregnancy rates and expected profitability.

5005 In these studies, no differences were observed in protein digestion or efficiency of utilization between feather meal and blood combinations, and soybean meal. Mature steers and growing lambs and calves were used in the trials. Blood and hydrolyzed feather meal supplements gave excellent results, although the precise economic value of feather and blood meal combinations are unknown.

17 The slope-ratio technique was used to compare protein sources for growing calves. Protein efficiency was greater for feather meal than for poultry by-product meal or for blends. Ruminally protected methionine and lysine were not effective for increasing the utilization of either product or their blends when fed with soy hulls. When given the same dry matter intakes, gains were much better for the poultry products than for soybean meal or soy hulls and urea.



Digestibility of Feather Meal for Young Cattle (Back to Top.)

5005 In these studies, no differences were observed in protein digestion or efficiency of utilization between feather meal and blood combinations, and soybean meal. Mature steers and growing lambs and calves were used in the trials. Blood and hydrolyzed feather meal supplements gave excellent results, although the precise economic value of feather and blood meal combinations are unknown.

73 Feather meal was shown to be a good source cystine, better than blood or meat and bone meals. Feather meal and methionine were positive additions to meat and bone meal supplements for growing calves fed 44% sorghum silage, 44% corn cobs and 12% supplement.

141 Feather meal was used as part of an undegradable intake protein blend for Holstein steers. This blend did not improve the efficiency of dietary nitrogen utilization when it was added to corn based diets.

143 Excellent study showing no differences in the hydrolysis time of feather meal (between 10 and 18 minutes) or nutritional quality. Further, to maximize biological efficiency, 12.5% blood meal can be added to feather meal for growing calves.

145 Studies of ruminal in situ digestion of feather meal were combined with growth trials to evaluate feather meal as a protein source for growing calves. The data demonstrate that feather meal is a digestible, high escape protein source that is useful in diets for growing ruminants.

193 This was a small, short term (7 day) metabolism study with Hereford steer calves in which soybean meal was compared to feather and hair meals as supplements. Protein source had no effect on nitrogen retention, yet there were different amounts of fecal and urinary nitrogen from the different sources, and more of the absorbed nitrogen was retained by feather meal fed steers. The authors conclude that feeding feather and hair meals may depress feed intake, but data to support that conclusion is lacking. The data presented indicates a small, non-significant positive effect of feather meal on feed intake.



Feather Meal for Mature Cattle (Back to Top.)

20 Very interesting study on the first-limiting amino acid(s) for milk production for cows fed grass silage diets supplemented with barley, citrus pulp and 1.25 kg/day feather meal. Histidine, methionine and lysine were all limiting milk production, but the first limiting varied among experiments. The influence of amino acids was measured by responses in milk output to jugular infusion.

21 Another study utilizing jugular infusion of amino acids to determine the first limiting amino acid for cows given grass silage based diets with cereal and feather meal supplements. Histidine was the first limiting amino acid and supplementing blood meal (rich in histidine) to the diet had effects similar to jugular infusion.

26 First paper in this series. Intravenous infusion of amino acids increased milk production by 26%. The technique and results have important implications for the choice of complementary proteins and amino acids to supplement any diet, and particularly those with feather meal.

103 A single experiment paper describing results from feeding 48 Holstein cows. A supplement of feather and blood meals (85:15) increased the production of milk protein solids and solids corrected milk when fed with a 17.6% crude protein diet, but not a 19.6% CP diet. The basal diets contained 50% alfalfa silage and 50% of a mixture of corn, soybean meal and vitamin and minerals, and either 0 or 4% of the feather and blood meal supplement.

106 In these experiments, soybean meal, fish meal or a blend of 30% corn gluten meal, 30% poultry by-product meal, 30% blood meal and 10% feather meal was fed with corn silage, alfalfa haylage, corn and barley. The paper indicates a 3 x 3 Latin square with 6 and 4 replications. Presumably the replications are individual cows. No differences between supplements were found in milk production or component yields. In one experiment dry matter intake was reduced by the blend; since milk output wasn't affected, efficiency must have been increased. The authors speculate they'd have had different results if corn silage had been the main forage instead of alfalfa. Perhaps, but since few differences were detected, a discussion of the power of the experiment would have been appropriate.

109 A supplement of feather meal: blood meal (85:15) fed at 3% increased conception rates and the fat corrected milk yield of Holstein cows. The diets were based on alfalfa haylage and corn silage. The supplement increased fat corrected milk yield by 500 to 600 grams per day (over 1 pound).

113 Another study in which dietary treatments had no significant effects on the milk production or dry matter intake of 32 Holstein cows from 5 to 19 weeks of lactation. Hydrolyzed feather and blood meal (3:1) were fed at 5 and 1.7% of all the diets respectively. Performance was very good.

115 Hydrolyzed feather meal and blood meal (1:1) were fed as sources of undegradable protein in high fat diets for cows in early lactation. The supplemental protein increased milk fat percentage, but not the amount of milk produced. This paper contains very good data for modeling the economics of adding feather and blood meals to dairy rations.

116 In contrast to the previous paper (115), no positive responses to adding feather and blood meals to lactating cows was observed in this study (according to the authors). However, feather meal was substituted into the diets at the expense of soybean meal, and there were no blood meal/feather meal combinations fed. Since differences were not detected, the magnitude of potential detectable differences is important but not found in the paper.

119 Another study in which feather meal and corn were substituted for soybean meal in the diets of lactating diary cows. Three % feather meal increased milk production by 7 pounds per day but 6% feather meal had no effect. Feather meal by protein level interactions make it difficult to predict when feather meal might be economically fed. This study should be considered preliminary.

182 Cows were fed soybean meal or a mixture of meat and bone meal, poultry, blood, and feather meals. Milk production was not effected by the treatments. There was only one pen of cows per treatment. An estimate of Model II error, how big a difference could have been detected by the experiment would have been helpful.

189 A very interesting research note showing that it is necessary to have an adaptation period when adding feather meal to dairy rations. Without an adaptation period, dry matter intake was quickly reduced. This raises serious questions about using short term experiments to evaluating feather meal for cows.

255 Hen feather meal was fed to calves from 7 to 120 days of age as 30, 60 or 100% of a supplement. No differences in calf growth were noted except that calves fed the 30% feather meal diet tended to perform better than the others.

318 This paper describes two experiments with feeding feather meal to cattle - one with milking cows and the other with Holstein calves. The cow diets were based on corn silage, corn, alfalfa hay and soybean meal. Calf diets were based on ground corn and rolled oats. Feather meal lowered dry matter intake, but not milk production, indicating an increase in feed efficiency. Calves fed 5 (but not 8) % feather meal grew better during the 8 to 12 week stage, suggesting a longer adaptation period for calves, or amino acid requirements changed as the birds aged.

4001 Industry summary only - A study with total mixed rations for cows. Feather meal at 3 or 6% was helpful for cows fed 14% (but not 18%) protein.

4002 This is a single page summary that concludes: "The data are consistent with a need to feed higher quantities of UIP in early lactation in diets with recommended levels of fiber". The actual amounts of feather and blood meals (or other diet ingredients) were not presented

4012 Industry Summary Only - This paper studied feather meal and fat interactions. Two and one-half% feather meal was helpful as long as fat was also added to the diet.

4020 Industry Summary Only - Very little specific data on cows or conditions used. It is emphasized that too much or too little by-products can inhibit performance.

4021 Industry Summary Only - In the first study, feather meal and blood meal were substituted into dairy rations at 16% crude protein. Milk yields were lower in cows fed the animal by-products, but the authors concluded the study was invalid because there was no appropriate statistical test. In a second study, no statistical differences were found in intake; milk production results weren't mentioned.

4022 Industry Summary Only - Very interesting study on the responses of steers to feather and blood meals for calves from weaning to finishing. In two different years, responses to protein supplements were dependent on the energy source fed: dry rolled corn or dry rolled corn plus wet corn gluten feed. The authors conclude that escape protein supplementation may be necessary to ensure maximum performance.

4024 Very interesting and well described study of cows fed a control diet or feather meal on a commercial farm. Unfortunately diet information, even how much feather meal was fed, was not given. Basically, there was no effect of feather meal on milk production, but feather meal increased milk protein and decreased milk fat. If data from cows more than 280 days postpartum was omitted, then milk fat also increased. If cows starting the trial less than 30 days postpartum were eliminated from the data set, then there were no significant differences in milk fat or protein. Data suggest it is important to know what part of the milking cycle cows are in when analyzing experiments.

4023 Another study where cows were fed feather meal, or not, on a large commercial farm. Unfortunately no diet or treatment differences were given. The overall conclusion was that there were no differences in performance of cows fed feather meal or a control diet.

4026 Industry Summary Only - An 85:15 feather meal: blood meal supplement increased milk production and protein when fed with a 17.5 but not 19.6% crude protein diet. Cows were in early lactation and fed alfalfa silage. The authors conclude that milk producers can feed less protein if a feather meal: blood meal supplement included in the ration.

4027 Industry Summary Only - No details of the trials were given. The authors concluded that feather meal cystine will not improve milk production or composition in methionine-limiting diets.

4035 A field trial in which 1 pound per head per day of feather meal was fed to fresh cows (less than 14 d postpartum) for four months. Cows produced 2.3 pounds more milk per day when feather meal was fed. The diets were based on alfalfa hay, ground corn, cottonseed, beet pulp, coastal hay, soybean meal and dry brewer's grains.

4008 Industry Summary Only - Feather meal supplemented cows gave the same amount of milk as soybean meal fed cows, and on less total feed intake. The authors saw this as a potential problem, perhaps assuming dairymen would associate lower consumption with lower production. This is not logical if their trial truly was powerful enough to demonstrate no differences in performance. Milk protein was reduced by feeding feather meal, perhaps due to protein quality.



Digestibility of Feather Meal for Mature Cattle (Back to Top.)

29 A short study with 8 cows in a Latin square design with 3 weeks on trial. Cows given feather meal showed an increase in milk fat, and lower concentrations of some plasma amino acids. The key to this paper is that grass silage was fed.

59 Protein degradability of several feedstuffs was measured by the in situ nylon bag method. The protein degradability of feather meal was found to be 29.1%, compared to 8.8% for corn gluten meal and 51.9% for meat and bone meal.

112 Ruminal flow was measured in cows with ruminal and duodenal cannulas. The basal diet was 10% chopped alfalfa hay and 40% corn silage. One-third of the supplemental protein from a mixture of 3:1 feather meal to blood meal maximized the flow of non-ammonia and non-microbial nitrogen.

117 Feather meal was fed to Holstein cows as part of an "animal protein" supplement with meat and bone meal and blood meal. Only main effect means are presented. Animal by-products decreased milk protein from 3.00 to 2.91%, although there was no significant difference in kg protein produced per day.

118 A mixture of hydrolyzed feather meal and blood meal (1:1) was fed to cows to study the influence of "high undegradable protein" on diets with and without 5% added fat. Blood and feather meals were added to sugar beet pulp based diets at the expense peas. 18.6% of the feather meal was degraded in the rumen. There were only 4 cows and they had two different types of duodenal canulas. 63.8 And 98.9% of the feather and blood meals, respectively, were degraded in the small intestine. Milk production and fat were unaffected by the treatments.

124 Feather meal degradation was measured in three ruminally and duodenally cannulated Holstein cows. 56.2% of the feather meal was undegraded in the rumen. No performance data were presented.

144 Blood and feather meal combinations were fed to crossbreed Hereford by Angus crossbred steers in a growth trial, lambs in a digestion trial. Two mature Hereford by Angus ruminally cannulated steers were also used for an in situ digestion study. Total digestibility was similar for soybean meal, blood meal and a blood and feather meal mixture. The paper presents evidence that blood should not be added to feathers before hydrolysis. Indications of variability in the results are lacking, so it is not always clear if observed differences are meaningful.

196 An interesting study of four lactating cows with canulas in the rumen, duodenum and ileum. Cows were fed a 50% grain mixture with 40% corn silage and 10% alfalfa pellets. The combination of blood and hydrolyzed feather meal increased the intestinal supply and absorption of amino acids, compared to soybean meal.

4015 Abstract only: This study is not really about feather or blood meals since they were in the basal diet, but there were no controls. The study is a 2 x 2 factorial with two levels of urea and two levels of a fat supplement. All cows performed the same.



Feather Meal for Lambs and Sheep (Back to Top.)

86 A feather meal and corn gluten meal mixture was one of the protein supplements for lambs fed freshly harvested wheat forage. An interesting study because results were different in two trials depending on maturity of the wheat forage used (if this was truly the only difference). In any case the feather meal based supplement performed as well as those based on cottonseed meal and corn gluten meal.

90 Feather meal replaced 33, 66 or 100% of soybean (weight basis) in supplements to growing wethers fed chopped barley straw. The authors conclude that feather meal can be substituted for soybean meal, but the lambs fed feather meal performed better. A more logical conclusion should have been that soybean meal is a poor substitute for feather meal for lambs.

111 Another study in which feather meal was substituted for soybean meal, and lambs performed better on the feather meal. The diets included corn silage and grass hay (whatever that is). This study makes it clear that responses to protein are dependent on the energy level fed.

125 Another study with growing lambs where soybean meal was a poor substitute for a feather and blood meal combination. Diets were barley based. Lack of detailed statistical analysis and excessive use of abbreviations make this work difficult to understand.

152 Classic paper with lambs fed finishing rations based on Timothy or Brome hay and shelled corn. Feather meal was substituted for soybean meal in the protein supplements. There were no replications in any of the 3 trials and no statistical analysis reported. In 4 of 6 trials, better gains were realized in lambs fed feather meal.

166 An excellent paper, particularly because they used feather meals of different qualities and were very careful to characterize the differences with chemical analyses and in vitro tests. Feather meal was shown to by-pass the rumen and compared very favorably to cottonseed meal as a protein source for lambs.

202 Another well characterized study in which feather meal was shown to be a better protein supplement for lambs than cottonseed meal. Increasing the relative proportion of dietary roughage decreased the utilization of the concentrates.

312 Feather meal by itself was compared to other protein supplements in experiment with lambs fed an alfalfa hay, grain sorghum and oats-based diet (10:78:10). There was no indication of variation in the parameters or adequate statistical analyses presented. Lambs fed feather meal performed about as those fed cottonseed meal. Some indication of Type II error (how big a difference could the experiment detect) would have been helpful.

313 Abstract: Lambs fed ground feathers performed just as well as those fed soybean meal.

4009 This work later published: see reference #90.

4039 This work later published: see reference #144.

5005 In these studies, no differences were observed in protein digestion or efficiency of utilization between feather meal and blood combinations, and soybean meal. Mature steers and growing lambs and calves were used in the trials. Blood and hydrolyzed feather meal supplements gave excellent results, although the precise economic value of feather and blood meal combinations are unknown.



Digestibility of Feather Meal for Lambs and Sheep (Back to Top.)

105 Results of a single feeding study are presented with lambs given two kinds of hay and two supplements: soybean meal or a mixture of corn gluten, feather and blood meals. Many biochemical measurements were taken but no performance data are presented to compare them to. A few interactions were found for urea and ammonia nitrogen flux was found, but their significance is not clear.

143 This study used lambs and calves to determine optimum hydrolyzing time for poultry feather meal and feather meal and blood meal combinations. Eighteen minutes was better than 12 or 15 minutes of hydrolysis for maximizing ruminal escape protein, although the authors concluded there were no nutritionally important effects. No differences in calf response were noted due to different combinations of feather and blood meals. The authors recommend using small amounts of blood meal with feather meal supplements.

229 A very small experiment utilizing only two wethers to study the effects of feather meal on rumen fluid characteristics (compared to liquefied fish and cottonseed meals). The feeding of liquefied fish resulted in increased rumen fluid ammonia compared to feather meal.

233 The influence of stem treating feathers with NaOH or H3PO4 on feather meal digestion was determined. The authors concluded that either the base or the acid could be used to decrease feather processing time. The base was much more effective.



Feather Meal for Swine (Back to Top.)

58 Feather meal plus lysine was evaluated as a substitute for soybean meal in swine diets. Although pigs fed up to 9% feather meal grew as well as controls, feeding higher levels resulted in slower growth but better carcasses (more lean). The pigs fed only 3% feather meal gained better than controls, but no statistical comparison is presented. In order to be very meaningful the authors need to present data on how big a difference could have been detected by their experiment. Feather meal at 9% may be acceptable if similar performance to all soybean meal is adequate, but better performance may be achieved by feeding 3% feather meal.

60 It seems that pigs, like chickens, respond to increases in dietary protein by increasing the proportion of carcass lean and decreasing carcass fat. This paper's premise is that their maybe some advantage to feeding "above the optimum level" of lysine or crude protein. Instead of determining the responses to lysine and or crude protein and determining the economically "optimal" diet (the one that maximizes profits for any set of prices), the discussion is concerned with whether medium or high nutrient diet-fed pigs were significantly different for certain traits. And a conclusion is made that no difference exists because the probability that the difference is real is 0.06 instead of 0.05. The author's conclusions that feather meal can be used in swine diets and its nitrogen will reduce carcass fat are valid.

96 A basal diet containing 10% hydrolyzed feather meal was used to determine the tryptophan requirement of young pigs. The authors conclude that pigs fed the corn, soybean meal, feather meal, corn gluten meal and whey based diet with adequate tryptophan performed just as well as those fed a corn-soy-whey diet. However, mean daily gains were 553g and 601g with a pooled SEM of 16g makes the conclusion suspect.

100 A basal diet containing 15.51% feather meal was used to determine the methionine requirement of young pigs. Piglets fed the basal diet with adequate levels of methionine performed similarly to those fed a corn, soybean meal and dried whey diet, indicating that 15.51% feather meal can be fed to 10 kg pigs if the diets are properly balanced.

261 This is an example of a too small experiment with a questionable data analysis and interpretation. A combination of blood, meat and hydrolyzed feathers was fed in place of fish meal to piglets. Piglets fed the animal protein mixture did not perform quite as well as those fed fish meal, but the differences were not significant at P<O.OS. More piglets and a better description of the feeds may have made the trial more meaningful.

294 An interesting review article, especially the possibility of using lanthionine as an indicator of feather meal damage during processing.

369 A very early paper with an appropriate design and statistical analysis of the data. Weanling piglets grew better on corn and soybean meal based diets that contained 5 vs. 7.5% feather meal. When lysine was added to the 7.5% feather meal diet, piglets grew as well as those fed 0 or 7.5% feather meal.

4030 Industry Summary Only: Adding 2.5% of feather meal to sow diets increased weight loss only in sows with the fastest growing piglets. Feather meal-fed sows returned to estrus 16 hours sooner. Sows and piglets did very well whether on feather meal or not.



Feather Meal for Fish (Back to Top.)

14 In this study semi-purified diets were fed to Indian major carp. When poultry feather meal was substituted for 25 or 50% of the fish meal in the diet, fish actually grew better than controls or those fed higher feather meal levels. The paper concludes that feather meal can be fed at 50% of the protein without compromising performance. It should have concluded that neither fish nor feather meal resulted in maximum performance, but a mixture of the two was complimentary and resulted in enhanced performance.

25 Feather meal was substituted for a mixture of fish and meat meal in diets for o. niloticus fry. Feather meal adequately replaced 66% of the fish and meat meals. This data suggests that a 33:66 mixture of feather meal: fish and meat and bone meal will give the best performance results. This work should definitely be repeated.

27 Feather and poultry meals were blended with fish silage and fed to growing catfish. Blends were standardized at 50% protein, so the actual amounts of feather or poultry meals differed. Although the authors conclude that the supplements can be fed without affecting growth, growth was actually better when poultry meal was fed than soybean meal or hydrolyzed feathers.

39 Hydrolyzed feather meal was added to European Sea Bass diets at 50% of crude protein at the expense of fish meal. At this high level, 31.3% of the diet, fish had a decreased growth rate, apparently due to increased protein degradation, not decreased synthesis.

69 Several protein meals were substituted into a casein gelatin based diet to measure digestibility in clarified catfish. The dry matter, crude protein and gross energy digest abilities were 70, 79 and 85% for poultry by-product meal; 63, 85, and 78% for hydrolyzed feather meal, and 67, 90, and 85% for soybean meal, respectively.

93 An animal by-product meal containing feather meal was tested in Nile Tilapia. The meal was a commercial product and its ingredient composition was not given. (The paper should have been published in the Journal of Unrepeatable Results). Fish fed the mystery meal did just fine compared to more expensive fish meal.

133 Juvenile Japanese Flounder grew well and had excellent growth and feed efficiency when 12% feather meal was fed. At 25% feather meal, growth was acceptable but feed efficiency was reduced. At higher feather meal levels performance was decreased. An amino acid supplement was helpful when 37% feather meal was fed, but performance was still sub-optimal.

208 Feather meal was substituted at 0, 5 and 15% of a standard diet for juvenile fall Chinook salmon at the expense of fish meal. Fish fed no feather meal gained more than those fed feather meal (31.30 vs. 29.34g) but the differences were not statistically different(P<0.05). Conditioning scores were actually better for the 15% feather meal-fed fish. In this diet, 15% feather meal was an acceptable substitute for fish meal.

217 Feather meal was one of the ingredients used to develop equations for estimating the energy in mixed feeds. No specific information on the digestibility of feather meal is given.

226 The digestibilities of poultry blood meal, poultry by-product (offal) meal and feather meal were measured in rainbow trout. Measurements were made in short term feeding studies with no measurements of performance on the various diets fed. Digestibilities of energy, crude protein and total lipids ranged between 79 and 89%.

235 Review article that barely mentions feeding any animal by-products. Poultry by-product and hydrolyzed feather meals are listed in a table as having "chemical scores" for rainbow trout and carp of 71 and 33, respectively. Both are said to have lysine as their first limiting amino acid for these species.

251 Hydrolyzed feather meal was substituted for casein in fish meal, wheat and starch-based diets for 40 - 50% rainbow trout. Fish fed 31.6% feather meal did not grow as well and had more carcass lipids than those fed similar protein levels from casein. The authors conclude the feather meal is first-limiting in lysine and lysine supplements will reduce the growth depression caused by the higher levels of feather meal; however, this conclusion does not seem justified by the data.

322 This is a review article mainly concerned with volumes of protein sources produced and their prices.

348 Tilapia were fed fish meal and soybean meal-based diets with blends of fish silage and poultry by-product meal or fish silage and hydrolyzed feather meal. The fish fed 13% poultry meal grew as well as those fed a control diet, but those fed 11% feather meal did not. Feed conversion and protein efficiency ratios were similar for fish fed all the diets.



Feather Meal for Poultry (Back to Top.)

36 Poultry by-product and feather meals were fed in diets formulated for true available amino availabilities. No specific information on individual ingredients is presented.

44 Very interesting studies in which feather meal inclusion in the diet increased egg production after a molt. The diets fed were very low in protein and fed for 15 - 17 days, followed by a standard laying diet. Whether differences are due to feather meal per se, or just protein level isn't clear.

48 Review article about a feather digestion process developed at North Carolina State University. The potential of fermenting feathers instead of hydrolyzing them is discussed.

50 This paper describes the feeding of a poultry by-product meal and feather meal combination to broilers in Northern Ireland. The feather and offal meal was substituted into a corn, wheat and soybean based diet at the expense of Peruvian fish meal. Birds were raised to 8 weeks of age. Up to 10% of the meal could be fed without any obvious negative effects on broiler performance.

132 This research investigated the effects of 4 process conditions on the composition of feather meal. Over-processing can reduce the amount of pepsin digestible protein measured in vitro. No comparisons of chemical measurements and bird performance were made.

135 Review article with a good general discussion of the usages of hydrolyzed feather meal and poultry meal in Asia.

136 Dead poultry, feathers, eggshells and hatchery waste were co-extruded with soybean meal to make feed ingredients for poultry. Birds fed all the diets performed well, particularly those fed meal from 3 or 5 week-old broilers.

167 Feather meal and soybean meal were added to broiler diets to compare their effects in reducing abdominal fat pads. There were no protein level by protein source interactions: Feather meal was as good as soybean meal in reducing abdominal fat pads.

180 This is an excellent paper on the analysis of feather meal. Its findings are overlooked but shouldn't be. Lanthionine present in hydrolyzed feather meal is converted to cysteic acid and reported to be cystine in routine amino acid analyses. This may make feather meal look like a better amino source than it really is, but as a result, diets formulated based on the wrong content of cystine will not be properly balanced for amino acid. Feather meal processed by several methods was compared at 2.5% of the diet. There were no differences found due to processing conditions, but that would be expected at such low inclusion rates.

213 Hydrolyzed feather meal was substituted into corn and soybean meal based diets and fed to broilers for 8 weeks at different protein levels. Adding 2 or 4% feather meal generally resulted in better performance than 0%, but 8 or 16% resulted in reduced performance. The data was originally interpreted as showing 8% feather meal was acceptable because the 0 and 8% inclusion rates gave the same performance. Since 2 and 4% feather meal gave better results, they probably represent the appropriate positive control.

219 This paper deals with the composition of three feather meal samples and the results of "true" digestibility assays. The samples were given to turkeys fasted for 24 hours and then excreta were collected for 48 hours to determine undigested residues. True amino acid digestibilties ranged from 59 to 83% and averaged from 72 to 76%. The average True Metabolizable Energy of the 3 samples was 2.98 k cal/g.

223 The results of different processing conditions on the Net Protein Values and nitrogen retention by growing chicks when feather meal was fed at 3.65, 7.20 or 10.75% of the diet. Weight gains were very good when the two lower levels of feather meal were fed. This is an excellent paper with good descriptions of the samples fed and appropriate designs and statistical analyses.

225 The influence of different processing times and additives (NaOH), enzymes) on amino acid digestibility was determined. True digestibility values ranged from 36.3% (ASP) to 86.5 (ILE). Large variations in amino acid digestibility were found. Processing time had a large effect on amino acid digestibility.

228 A classic paper on the influence of processing time on the utilization of hydrolyzed feather meal. The studies with New Hampshire, Delaware, and White Wyandotte chicks are difficult to interpret, especially with no statistical analyses presented. Still it is evident that there are big differences in feather meal quality due to processing conditions and a commercial sample was not very good.

230 Another classic paper in which feather meal was compared to soybean meal and meat meal. The authors conclude that feather meal should be a good source of "non-specific nitrogen", especially in higher protein diets. The data are difficult to interpret because of no indication of variation or statistical analysis, and the diets were probably quite imbalanced with respect to amino acids.

241 Early paper showing excellent results from feeding feather meal with an equal amount of protein from meat and bone scrap or blood meal. Up to 9% difference in growth due to feather meal source were observed, but because of lack of any indication of variation, it is not clear if the differences should be considered "significant".

252 Feeding corn and soybean meal rations in these old studies resulted in three pound chickens in 9 weeks. Eight to 9% differences in performance were observed from feeding different feather meal samples at different protein levels.

255 German with English summary: Growth was reduced 1.5 and 6% when 3 and 5% feather meal was fed to growing pheasants.

273 This report documents the feeding value of a product that is a combination of poultry by-product meal, blood meal and feather meal, all processed together (cooked for 30 minutes at 40 psi and then for 180 minutes at atmospheric pressure. The proximate analysis of 201 samples is presented and experiments are detailed showing that the product can safely replace 10% of soybean meal in broiler diets.

279 This is an excellent review article, especially from the perspective of engineering and processing variables and the feeding value of feather meal. The review includes 20 key tables on the composition of feather meal and the response of birds fed feather meal.

291 This paper presents evidence that the standard hydrolyzing conditions (in 1972) were not maximizing the feeding value of feather meal for broilers. Feathers cooked at 50 pounds of steam pressure for 60 minutes were superior to those cooked at 35 psi for 30 minutes. Intermittent agitation was found to be adequate (1 minute on, 1 off) and constant agitation during cooking not necessary. Older chicks were found to utilize feather meal more effectively.

294 This very good review article from the Netherlands is not as comprehensive as a later one from the same university (paper #279).

301 This paper describes feeding studies in which feather meal is substituted for soybean meal. Diets with 3% feather meal supported growth as well as those with 5% soybean meal.

311 Very classic Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin. The work described centers on the complementary value of corn and feather proteins, corn being low in cystine, and feathers being quite high.

317 This research is concerned with determining the limiting amino acids in diets based on feather meal, corn-feather meal and corn-soybean meal-feather meal. The diets were fed to slow-growing male single comb White Leghorn chicks. The lack of any indication of variability in the results (standard errors) make the results difficult to interpret. Still it is surprising that processed feathers did not seem to be an improvement over raw feathers.

320 This is a very interesting study of hydrolyzed feather meals from South Africa, Argentina and Canada, and the amino acid supplementation of diets based on feather meal and starch.

324 This work compares poultry by-product meal and feather meal processed separately and then blended, or processed together. More uniform products were found when the products were processed separately. Surprising data on the amino acid composition of the products is presented. For instance, the methionine content of 5 blended products ranged from 0.81 to 1.17%. Availability values were also quite variable with cystine availability ranging from 76 to 89%.

338 This review concerns feather meal's use as a commercial fertilizer.

339 Feather meal was added to finisher diets and was shown to decrease abdominal fat pads. Clearly increasing dietary protein level has this effect and feather meal is one way to increase dietary protein level.

355 This paper compared supplementing poultry by-product meal and feather meal for layers and breeders. Feather meal was shown to significantly increase the % hatch of fertile eggs and egg production in 1 of 2 experiments. Poultry by-product meal also improved egg production in 1 of 2 experiments.

360 This research showed that when 7% hydrolyzed feather meal was added to a laying hen diet, lysine and tryptophan were necessary to maintain egg output equal to the control diet.

361 Six percent hydrolyzed feather meal in broiler diets based on wheat, soybean meal and fish and meat meals, did not depress performance. Fifty-seven % of the total sulfur-containing amino acids were supplied by cystine without a problem.

362 Results of two experiments showed that feather meal could replace half the soybean meal in complex diets based on wheat, corn and several animal by-product meals. Soybean meal was fed at 8 or 12% so feather meal produced adequate growth at 4 or 4%.

364 Results of a large factorial turkey experiment where half of the 24 treatment groups received 5% feather meal showed that extra methionine had to be added to maximize performance. Addition of ingredients on a weight basis to a common basal ration, and several significant interactions make this data very difficult to interpret.

365 Feather meal and ground corn were added to turkey diets at the expense of soybean meal without changing growth rates, but feed efficiency was improved. The increase in feed efficiency was attributed to feather meal providing more energy than soybean meal.

367 Feather meal was fed to chickens in two studies. Feather meal improved growth to roughly the same extent as DC-Methionine. Lack of detailed diet information or any indication of variability in results makes any further conclusion impossible.

38 Feather and poultry by-product meals used in this study were not characterized as to raw materials or processing conditions. Although the presentation of means in the table make the experiment very difficult to interpret, the authors conclusion that turkeys fed diets with some animal by-products do as well as those fed corn and soybean meal diets, is probably correct.

172 Both broilers and layers were fed feather meal and "feather & offal" meal in corn, soybean meal and fish meal based diets at the expense of fish meal. Performance of layers, but not broilers, was maximized when the mixture of feather and offal meal was fed. Neither the raw ingredients nor processing conditions for the meals was described.

211 Results of assays using cecectomized and normal roosters, and growing broilers were compared. The responses of the broiler chicks hardly seem linear, so the bioavailability values are questionable. Results of tests for linearity were not presented. The amino acid availability using cecectomized roosters averaged 69% for feather meal and 78% poultry by-product meal. Details of product processing or raw materials were not presented.

244 This early study compared two samples each of hydrolyzed feather meal, poultry by-products meal and poultry blood meal to fish meal, soybean meal and animal meat scrap in diets for broilers and layers. The best broiler growth came from chicks fed diets supplemented with the hydrolyzed feather meal. Egg production was poor by modern standards for layers whether given a protein supplement or not. Feed conversion was improved by feeding 3% hydrolyzed feather meal.

368 This is a classic study in which feather meal and blood meal replaced 2.5% of soybean and fish meals. All the broilers reached almost 3.5 pounds in 9 weeks, showing that a low level of feather and blood meals did no harm. In a battery study in which the very best groups reached 1 pound by 4 weeks of age, 7.5% poultry by-product meal was shown to replace 7.5% fish meal. Sample compositions and processing conditions were not described.



Feather Meal Digestibility for Poultry (Back to Top.)

41 This research was designed to relate processing conditions to measures of the nutritional value of feather meal. Unfortunately, indicators of nutritional value were correlated among themselves, and not to amino acid availability, which presumably would determine feeding value in a mixed ration. The authors suggest that bulk density could be used to monitor feather meal quality, but density was not related to pepsin digestible protein, nor the availability of the limiting amino acids for any species of livestock.

46 Differences in the true digestibility of amino acids were found due to processing system and conditions. Digestibility within a sample ranged from 49 - 86% for His and across samples from 58 - 72% for lysine, from 74 - 79% for Met and from 47 - 62% for Cys. Chick assays also demonstrated large significant differences in growth and protein efficiency ratio of the samples.

62 This paper editorializes in its title about the low nutritional value of feather meal without adequately describing raw materials on storage conditions. The 4 samples ranged from 1.2 to 12.7% crude fat indicating they were indeed not al purely feather meals. Chicks in their experiments fed 15% feather meal grew quite well as long as the diets were properly balanced.

74 About half of the amino acids in two feather meal samples were absorbed by chickens in this study. The raw materials, processing treatment and storage conditions are not described for the two samples, so the reason(s) for the poor digestion are not known.

149 This paper describes an excellent series of studies on the feeding value of a well characterized feather meal. When properly balanced, the feather meal sample could provide up to 40% of the protein for growing broilers. Bioavailable cystine was found to be 2.9% of the sample.

177 Seven commercial feather meal samples were compared by in vitro and in vivo assays. Lysine ranged from 1.5 to 2.2%, methionine from .45 to .61 and cystine from 4.1 to 5.3% of the samples. Lysine bioavailability ranged from 22 to 69% by chick growth assay, and methionine plus cystine bioavailability from 70 to 84%. True Metabolizable Energy of the samples ranged from 2.8 to 3.9 k cal/g.

211 This paper presents comparative data from bioavailability assays for feather meal and poultry by-product meal. Large differences were noted between rooster and chick bioassays for feather meal but not poultry by-product meal. The samples were not well characterized and so it is not known if the results are representative of commercial samples.



Feather Meal for Goats (Back to Top.)

102 Hydrolyzed feather meal feeding to supply two-thirds of total protein resulted in growth similar to corn gluten meal, cottonseed meal or fish meal. Greasy fleece weights were similar to feeding cottonseed meal or fish meal, but not as good as those from feeding corn gluten meal.

114 "The use of hydrolyzed feather meal with blood meal can improve the nutritive value of the diet and milk quality of dairy goats" when compared to meat meal. Twenty-seven % of crude protein was supplied by the animal protein sources.

118 When 50% of dietary protein was supplied by hydrolyzed feather meal or soybean meal body weights and milk production were very similar. However, milk protein content and yield were lower in goats fed hydrolyzed feather meal.



Poultry Meal Composition (Back to Top.)

211 This paper presents comparative data from bioavailability assays for feather meal and poultry by-product meal. Large differences were noted between rooster and chick bioassays for feather meal but not poultry by-product meal. The samples were not well characterized and so it is not known if the results are representative of commercial samples.

68 Very nice study from Nigeria on the influence of rendering time and temperature on the composition of poultry by-product meal. Data on moisture, methionine, lysine, cystine, histidine and tryptophan are presented.

183 This paper describes the chemical analyses of six samples from each of three plants. The author's definition of "poultry offal meal" is not clear: The Experimental Procedures says … in which feathers were treated with saturated steam …, but the samples only contain about 54% crude protein. Amino acid compositions of the samples are quite variable with methionine, for instance, ranging from 0.66 - 0.93%.

245 A short note on the proximate compositions of raw and processed broiler offal.

334 Results of an extensive chemical and microbiological survey of both washed and unwashed raw poultry offal are presented. Amino acid and vitamin data is included.

370 This paper concerns variation in blood loss during processing and thus the amount of blood may be in offal.

195 This paper deals with the chemical composition of a poultry by-products sample after several fermentations under various conditions. The conclusion is that fermentation causes too much biochemical deterioration of protein and amino acids to be useful.



Poultry Meal for Young Cattle (Back to Top.)

13 This is a very interesting paper, and very important one, because it compares different samples of poultry by-product meal from different renderers. Escape protein values obtained by 12 hour in vitro incubation ranged from 32 to 40% of crude protein (which ranged from 54 to 68%). True protein digestibility (in lambs) varied from 85 to 93% (entire tract). Metabolizable methionine was found to be the limiting amino acid in poultry by-product meal for calves.

17 The slope-ratio technique was used to compare protein sources for growing calves. Protein efficiency was greater for feather meal than for poultry by-product meal or for blends. Ruminally protected methionine and lysine were not effective for increasing the utilization of either product or their blends when fed with soy hulls. When given the same dry matter intakes, gains were much better for the poultry products than for soybean meal or soy hulls and urea.

288 Poultry, blood and feather meals were compared as protein supplements for dairy heifers fed corn silage. No differences were found among the poultry by-products blends and soybean meal, fish meal or meat and bone meal. In this study the diets were available for ad libitum consumption.



Poultry Meal for Mature Cattle (Back to Top.)

106 In these experiments, soybean meal, fish meal or a blend of 30% corn gluten meal, 30% poultry by-product meal, 30% blood meal and 10% feather meal was fed with corn silage, alfalfa haylage, corn and barley. The paper indicates a 3 x 3 Latin square with 6 and 4 replications. Presumably the replications are individual cows. No differences between supplements were found in milk production or component yields. In one experiment dry matter intake was reduced by the blend; since milk output wasn't affected, efficiency must have been increased. The authors speculate they'd have had different results if corn silage had been the main forage instead of alfalfa. Perhaps, but since few differences were detected, a discussion of the power of the experiment would have been appropriate.

182 Cows were fed soybean meal or a mixture of meat and bone meal, poultry, blood, and feather meals. Milk production was not effected by the treatments. There was only one pen of cows per treatment. An estimate of Model II error, how big a difference could have been detected by the experiment would have been helpful.



Poultry Meal for Lambs & Sheep (Back to Top.)

67 The title seems a bit misleading and could read: "Soybean meal is a poor substitute for poultry by-product meal in the diets of growing hair sheep ...". Lambs performed better when fed poultry by-product meal or soybean meal and poultry by-product meal combinations.



Poultry Meal for Swine (Back to Top.)

179 Four samples produced by a batch dry-rendering process were used in digestion trials with pigs fitted with "T" canulas to determine apparent amino acid digestibilities. The samples were mixed with cornstarch and dextrose to achieve 12% protein diets for feeding. Thus digestibility, or rather amino acid disappearance, was not as part of a normal mixed diet. The samples ranged from 63.8 to 65.2% crude protein, 10.3 to 14.4% crude fat, and 11.7 to 13.9% crude fiber. Across trial variation in amino acid digestibility ranged from 89 to 91% for arginine and 75 to 84% for isoleucine for a single soybean meal sample. For poultry by-product meal, ileal and fecal amino acid digestibilities averaged 76 " 0.5 and 87 " .4% (compared to 78 " 1.4 and 85 " 1.2% for soybean meal). Arginine had the highest digestibility, 86 " .7%, and threonine the lowest, 75 " .5%. Ileal and fecal digestibilities were highly correlated.



Poultry Meal for Fish (Back to Top.)

1 A combination of poultry by-product and feather meals could completely replace fish meal in rainbow trout diets based on toasted soybean meal, dried yeast, and wheat flour. Although body weights were similar, poultry products fed fish had more fat and less protein in their carcasses.

3 The authors conclude that poultry by-product but not meat and bone meals, are acceptable substitutes for fish meal in diets based on soybean meal, isolated soy protein, wheat gluten and starch, and menhaden fish oil.

5 Sub-optimal performance was observed from fish fed a diet with a 1:1 blend of poultry by-product meal and soybean meal replacing fish meal. No attempt was made to balance nutrients only to substitute 30% poultry by-product meal for fish meal.

27 Feather and poultry meals were blended with fish silage and fed to growing catfish. Blends were standardized at 50% protein, so the actual amounts of feather or poultry meals differed. Although the authors conclude that the supplements can be fed without affecting growth, growth was actually better when poultry meal was fed than soybean meal or hydrolyzed feathers.

69 Several protein meals were substituted into a casein gelatin based diet to measure digestibility in clarified catfish. The dry matter, crude protein and gross energy digest abilities were 70, 79 and 85% for poultry by-product meal; 63, 85, and 78% for hydrolyzed feather meal, and 67, 90, and 85% for soybean meal, respectively.

129 A full-fat poultry by-product meal produced in Egypt was compared to an imported, defatted, herring meal in diets based on wheat bran and corn starch. No attempt was made to balance the diet for amino acids. Fish fed poultry by-product meal grew nearly as well as those fed fish meal (P > 0.05), but feed efficiency was not as good and carcass fat was higher.

140 Fish fed poultry meal and dates or date pits out performed those fed fish meal or blood meal with date products. The diets also contained substantial amounts of soybean meal, wheat flour, and corn starch. The authors questioned the validity of their own results, wondering about the quality of their fish and blood meals.

204 The data in this paper are difficult to interpret in terms of any single ingredient. The quantities of four or five ingredients were changed simultaneously. The diets where poultry by-product meal, soybean meal, and wheat middlings replaced part of the herring meal produced the best performance.

209 When 10 and 20% poultry by-product meal replaced 9.3 and 18.7% herring meal (in diets based on feather meal, blood meal, and wheat by-products) no differences in fish performance were noted. Feeding 30% poultry by-product meal did decrease performance.

210 The title of this paper is misleading since a combination of poultry by-product meal and blood meal (46:27) was compared to fish meal. The poultry by-product meal was full fat (16% lipid). It is not clear what the correct interpretation of the data should be since the 2 X 2 factorial design was analyzed by one-way procedures. The authors suggest there is an interaction between protein source and oil source, but this hypothesis was not directly tested and is questionable. In any case, eels fed the fish meal based diet performed better than those fed the poultry by-product and blood meals combination.

226 The digestibilities of poultry blood meal, poultry by-product (offal) meal and feather meal were measured in rainbow trout. Measurements were made in short term feeding studies with no measurements of performance on the various diets fed. Digestibilities of energy, crude protein and total lipids ranged between 79 and 89%.

235 Review article that barely mentions feeding any animal by-products. Poultry by-product and hydrolyzed feather meals are listed in a table as having "chemical scores" for rainbow trout and carp of 71 and 33, respectively. Both are said to have lysine as their first limiting amino acid for these species.

249 In this paper a combination of poultry by-product and soybean meals 28:32 was compared to several combinations of fish meal and soybean meal. Fish fed the poultry by-product meal combination performed as well as any fed diets based on fish or meat and bone meals.

250 A test-diet based on an undescribed sample of "poultry by-products meal", methionine and lysine, was compared to a control diet based on fish and soybean meals and skim milk powder. Roughly comparable growth was observed from both diets; there was little replication (n = 2) and no statistical analysis.

266 English Summary and Tables only. The ingredients and diets fed were well characterized. The results of two studies showed that poultry by-product meal could replace all of the fish meal for yearlings, but only 70% for juvenile sea bream.

271 Fish performed very well when fed poultry by-product meal instead of herring meal in diets containing wheat midds and 16-23% cellulose. Percentage of carcass lean actually increased as percentage low ash poultry by-product meal increased, suggesting poultry by-product meal was superior to herring meal in these diets.

280 The full-fat poultry by-product meal fed in this study contained 30% ether extract. The poultry by-product meal was compared to a defatted fish meal with 6% ether extract and a soybean meal with 6% ether extract. The authors conclude that only 25% of fish meal can be replaced by poultry by-product meal for this species, but their results are surely influenced by the different amounts of fat in their ingredients and diets.

322 This is a review article mainly concerned with volumes of protein sources produced and their prices.

348 Tilapia were fed fish meal and soybean meal-based diets with blends of fish silage and poultry by-product meal or fish silage and hydrolyzed feather meal. The fish fed 13% poultry meal grew as well as those fed a control diet, but those fed 11% feather meal did not. Feed conversion and protein efficiency ratios were similar for fish fed all the diets.

349 In these studies a poultry by-product meal sample containing 68% protein and 12% lipid was compared to a herring meal sample with 69% protein and 11% lipids. It was found that 25% but not 36% of the diet could be poultry meal without hurting performance. The fascinating result noted here was that methionine and lysine supplements were helpful in low energy diets but harmful in higher energy diets. It is apparent that the diets were not optimized for protein, energy and amino acids.



Poultry Meal Digestibility for Fish (Back to Top.)

2 The digestibility of a single poultry by-product meal sample containing 62.2% crude protein and 15.3% lipid was determined. The apparent digestibilities for poultry by-product meal and soybean meal were: organic matter, 75.6 and 65.2; crude protein, 48.7 and 86.1; lipid, 59.0 and 62.7; gross energy, 71.7 and 63.3; phosphorus, 26.5 and 46.8. The very low protein, lipid and phosphorus digestibilities are quite surprising and suspect and the data seem internally inconsistent; there would not be much carbohydrate expected in the poultry by-product meal, so how could the organic matter and gross energy digestibilities be so much higher than the crude protein and lipid digestibilities. The same was true for fish meal and meat and bone meal and suggests a serious methodology problem.

4 The apparent phosphorus availability of poultry by-product meal was found to be -11%, but not significantly different from zero. The authors discuss a number of problems with their assay procedures and point out their value of 0 for rainbow trout is quite different from the 81% others have found for Atlantic Salmon.

6 The digestibility of four feather meals and 2 poultry by-product meals were compared. The feather meals were from products with chickens and turkeys and 3 of 4 samples also contained hog hair. The poultry by-product meals were based on chicken offal but also contained feet, legs, and meat and one had a small proportion from turkeys, ducks, and game birds. For the feather meals, crude protein digestibilities were very good, ranging from 81-87%, but lipid digestibility was surprisingly low, 40-83%. Digestibility of the poultry by-product meals was more consistent: 87-91% for crude protein and 78-92% for lipids.

7 When good samples of poultry by-product meal and feather meal was tested, they could replace 75 or 100% of the fish meal in starch based diets. Growth was depressed when high fat content meals were fed (18 and 30% vs. 13.5% lipids). Differences in samples and feeding levels were observed.

9 Two poultry by-product meals were compared, along with several other ingredients. The raw materials for the poultry by-product meals was not described, but they contained 61.4 and 58.6% crude protein, 16.5 and 17.7% lipids, and 11.4 and 12.7% ash. The digestible organic matter, crude protein and gross energies of the samples were quite different at 75.9 vs. 65.6, 84.9 vs. 74.4, and 72.4 vs. 65.4, respectively. These digestibilities were very similar to soybean meal, but inferior to herring, anchovy and menhaden meals, and much better than blood meal.

10 The digestibility of seven poultry by-product meals ranging from 55-74% crude protein, 10-19% lipids and 11-23% ash were compared. The samples were obtained from 6 different processors, but the raw materials and processing conditions were not described. The in vivo protein digestibilities ranged from 64.4 to 77.7%, compared to 99.0% for casein.



Poultry Meal for Poultry (Back to Top.)

36 Poultry by-product and feather meals were fed in diets formulated for true available amino availabilities. No specific information on individual ingredients is presented.

38 Feather and poultry by-product meals used in this study were not characterized as to raw materials or processing conditions. Although the presentation of means in the table make the experiment very difficult to interpret, the authors conclusion that turkeys fed diets with some animal by-products do as well as those fed corn and soybean meal diets, is probably correct.

50 A composite meal made by autoclaving blood, feathers, and offal was tested in broiler diets. The proportions of each raw material was not given, although protein, amino acid and metabolizable energy contents were determined. The poultry meal was fed at the expense of Peruvian fish meal. Optimum growth and feed efficiency was found with 10% Poultry feather and offal meal replacing 10% fish meal.

65 The results of a single, unreplicated, experiment are presented without statistical analysis. Poultry by-product meal and poultry oil are implicated in causing pulmonary hypertension, right ventricular failure, and ascites in broilers. The total deaths are 15 of 120 for the controls versus 25 of 120 for birds fed both poultry by-product meal and poultry oil. Without confirmation this paper should be regarded as containing weak anecdotal evidence.

70 In this work the limiting amino acids in a diet based on a blend of four poultry by-product meals of unknown raw materials were determined. Cystine, tryptophan, (threonine and lysine) and valine are the first five limiting amino acids in poultry by-product meal. The data could be valuable in determining complementary proteins for feeding broilers

135 Review article with a good general discussion of the usages of hydrolyzed feather meal and poultry meal in Asia.

136 Dead poultry, feathers, eggshells and hatchery waste were co-extruded with soybean meal to make feed ingredients for poultry. Birds fed all the diets performed well, particularly those fed meal from 3 or 5 week-old broilers.

172 Both broilers and layers were fed feather meal and "feather & offal" meal in corn, soybean meal, and fish meal based diets at the expense of fish meal. Performance of layers, but not broilers, was maximized when the mixture of feather and offal meal was fed. Neither the raw ingredients nor processing conditions for the meals was described.

211 Results of assays using cecectomized and normal roosters, and growing broilers were compared. The responses of the broiler chicks hardly seem linear, so the bioavailability values are questionable. Results of tests for linearity were not presented. The amino acid availability using cecectomized roosters averaged 69% for feather meal and 78% for poultry by-product meal. Details of product processing or raw materials was not presented.

227 This research note describes a single experiment in which samples of fish meal, poultry by-product meal, and a combination of poultry by-products and feathers processed together. Chicks grew quite well to 25 days on all the diets. The combination meal contained 63% crude protein, 21% fat and 7% ash. Processing details were not given.

244 This early study compared two samples each of hydrolyzed feather meal, poultry by-products meal and poultry blood meal, to fish meal, soybean meal and animal meat scrap, in diets for broilers and layers. The best broiler growth came from chicks fed diets supplemented with the hydrolyzed feather meal. Egg production was poor by modern standards for layers whether given a protein supplement or not. Feed conversion was improved by feeding 3% hydrolyzed feather meal.

252 Feeding corn and soybean meal rations in these old studies resulted in three pound chickens in 9 weeks. Eight to 9% differences in performance were observed from feeding different feather meal samples at different protein levels

273 This report documents the feeding value of a product that is a combination of poultry by-product meal, blood meal and feather meal, all processed together (cooked for 30 minutes at 40 psi and then for 180 minutes at atmospheric pressure. The proximate analysis of 201 samples is presented and experiments are detailed showing that the product can safely replace 10% of soybean meal in broiler diets.

281 Eight samples of poultry by-product meal were compared to soybean meal as sources of protein. The amino acid composition and digestible lysine are presented. The ranking of samples was different for available lysine, pepsin digestibility, chemical score, protein efficiency ratio, etc.

289 Although the processing conditions are given in this paper, the raw materials are not, and neither is the proximate analysis to give some clue as to the amount of feathers present, if any. Greater than 20 p.s.i.g. or 15 minutes of processing reduced broiler performance.

324 This work compares poultry by-product meal and feather meal processed separately and then blended, or processed together. More uniform products were found when the products were processed separately. Surprising data on the amino acid composition of the products is presented. For instance, the methionine content of 5 blended products ranged from 0.81 to 1.17%. Availability values were also quite variable with cystine availability ranging from 76 to 89%.

368 This is a classic study in which feather meal and blood meal replaced 2.5% of soybean and fish meals. All the broilers reached almost 3.5 pounds in 9 weeks, showing that a low level of feather and blood meals did no harm. In a battery study in which the very best groups reached 1 pound by 4 weeks of age, 7.5% poultry by-product meal was shown to replace 7.5% fish meal. Sample compositions and processing conditions were not described.

355 This paper compared supplementing poultry by-product meal and feather meal for layers and breeders. Feather meal was shown to significantly increase the % hatch of fertile eggs and egg production in 1 of 2 experiments. Poultry by-product meal also improved egg production in 1 of 2 experiments.

77 Samples of high- and low-ash poultry by-product meals were compared. The meals were processed at 130°, but processing times and raw materials were not presented. The true amino acid digestibilities (determined in cecectomized roosters) ranged from 53.7 and 52.5% for cysteine to 102.0 and 98.2% for phenylalanine, for the low- and high-ash samples, respectively. Digestibilities were lower, but followed the same pattern for ileally cannulated dogs.

337 The true amino acid digestibility of one poultry by-product sample is compared to two soybean meal samples. Percentage digestibility in the poultry meal ranged from 84.2 to 90.5 for lysine and methionine plus cystine, respectively. For soybean meal they ranged from 90.3 to 96.3 for threonine and methionine plus cystine. The cecectomized rooster assay was used to estimate amino acid digestibility.



Poultry Grease for Ruminants (Back to Top.)

134 This is a conference proceedings review article. This is an excellent article and should be read by anyone interested in feeding fats to ruminants. Fats' influence on feed intake, inhibition of rumen fermentation and intestinal absorption limits are discussed.

187 This is another excellent review article on feeding fats to ruminants. The influence of type of fat is discussed, although poultry grease is not specifically mentioned. Unsaturated fats, like poultry grease, are more toxic to rumen microbes, but can be fed successfully at 7% of the diet without causing problems.

303 A good paper that describes feeding saturated and unsaturated fats (but not poultry grease) to sheep. Interestingly, beef tallow was more digestible than vegetable oils, suggesting that poultry grease would also be more digestible.

304 This is a continuation of paper 303 in which the digestibility of individual fatty acids are described. The data suggests that ruminants are better able to utilize saturated fatty acids than non-ruminants.



Poultry Grease Stability (Back to Top.)

158 Poultry grease and beef tallow were incorporated into dog foods, canned, and their stabilities were measured over a14 month period. At 12 and 14 months (but not 10 months) differences in stability were detected, with beef tallow being slightly more stable. Interestingly, interactions between fat source (tallow vs. poultry grease) and fat content, feed moisture and extruder screw speed were found for the specific volumes of the food (cm 3/g). The specific volume decreased much faster for beef tallow than poultry grease as fat content increased.



Poultry Grease for Swine (Back to Top.)

4033 Industry Summary Only. The authors conclude "that up to six percent added poultry fat can be fed to finishing pigs with relatively little effect on pork quality". Adding poultry grease to the diet improved feed efficiency, and the sample used compared very well choice white grease.

371 The fatty acid profiles of the diets were presented, but no information on the samples tested were provided. Pigs fed poultry grease performed very similarly to those fed animal fat. Adding either fat source to the diet at 2.5 or 5% improved feed efficiency. Feeding poultry grease resulted in more linoleic acid but less oleic acid than animal fat.



Poultry Grease for Fish (Back to Top.)

210 The title of this paper is misleading since a combination of poultry by-product meal and blood meal (46:27) was compared to fish meal. The poultry by-product meal was full fat (16% lipid). It is not clear what the correct interpretation of the data should be since the 2 X 2 factorial design was analyzed by one-way procedures. The authors suggest there is an interaction between protein source and oil source, but this hypothesis was not directly tested and is questionable. In any case, eels fed the fish meal based diet performed better than those fed the poultry by-product and blood meals combination.



Poultry Grease for Poultry (Back to Top.)

153 Poultry grease was compared to corn oil and lard at 0, 1.5 or 3.0% of the diet. Adding fats to the diet did not effect production, egg weight, or hatchability. Body weight was increased, as expected, by adding fat to the diets. The statistical analyses chosen do not lend themselves to easily interpreting the experimental results.

154 The dietary fats fed were not well defined. Low energy level decreased yolk size and increased albumen weight. Again, the statistical analyses chosen do not lend themselves to easily interpreting the experimental results.

155 Results from feeding different fats and fat levels to breeders are not presented. Neither the egg nor chick sizes are presented, nor are the environmental conditions during the grow outs presented. Differences in growth may be due to hen age, or season, or conditions during the broiler growout.

156 Results from feeding different fats and fat levels to breeders are not presented. Neither the egg nor chick sizes are presented, nor are the environmental conditions during the grow outs presented. Differences in growth may be due to hen age, or season, or conditions during the broiler growout.

159 Young and old hens were fed the diets at the same times, but they were analyzed as being from two entirely separate experiments. Therefore it is impossible to tell if there are age by diet interactions. The young hens laid at 94% regardless of fat source, but the old hens laid about 3% better (85.5 vs. 88.8%) when fed the prilled fat, but their eggs were smaller. The rest of the data is also generally inconclusive. The bottom line is that layers given prilled fat or poultry grease performed about the same.

162 A very interesting paper showing that the addition of poultry grease to a corn and soybean meal based diet increases the total lipid digestibility of the diet for broilers. The digestibility of the poultry grease was constant at approximately 93%, or 8.3 kcal ME per gram. The relationship of gastrointestinal transit time and age was curvilinear. Gastrointestinal transit time was about 170 minutes when chicks were 1 or 2 weeks old and increased to about 210 minutes at 4 weeks and stayed constant at about 210 minutes during weeks five and six.

163 Five percent poultry grease was compared to five percent yellow grease. Initial peroxide values, active oxidation method, and antioxidant levels are given for fresh samples and after 10 and 21 days of storage. The fatty acid profiles of the fats are very similar, making one wonder what type of restaurant the yellow grease came from. Broiler performance was very similar for the fats and their blends

165 No differences in biological responses could be detected from feeding poultry grease or corn oil at up to 20% of the diet. Feeding either fat source increased growth and improved feed utilization in the corn and soybean meal based diets fed.

232 The energy and gastrointestinal transit time of three fat samples were measured in broilers, along with TBA and hydroperoxide numbers. The energy and digestibility of the poultry grease and corn oil were not significantly different, and both were much better than the commercial fat sample tested. The TBA values were correlated with the biological measurements, but with only three samples it is very difficult to know if this was just a coincidence or not.

262 Poultry grease was fed in this experiment, but it was always in a 34:66 mixture with rape seed oil. Increasing the peroxide content of the mixture from 5 to 50 mEq 02/kg decreased growth, but further increases, to 150 mEq 02/kg did not further decrease growth.

263 This single experiment paper describes an experiment that began when the breeders were 39 weeks of age. The only performance differences noted was that birds fed either fat gained more weight than those fed a fat-free basal.

340 In this classic study, the metabolizable energies of 16 fat samples were determined in broiler chicks fed diets from practical ingredients. The absorbability (might now be called disappearance or digestibility) of poultry grease was 94% compared to 78.9% for all-beef tallow and 96.8% for refined corn oil. Poultry grease had the highest metabolizable energy, 10.19 Kcal/kg, compared to 9.18 for refined corn oil and 6.99 for hydrolyzed animal and vegetable fat.

359 This paper contains excellent data on the metabolizable energy and digestibility of 3 fats in different age birds. ME and digestibility increased with bird age and the ME of poultry grease was higher than either animal fat or beef tallow.



Egg Waste Composition (Back to Top.)

215 Meeting Abstract. Egg shells from an egg breaking plant were found to contain 89.9% ash, 8.1% protein, and 0.1% fat.

236 Meeting Abstract. With this particular equipment available in 1976-1977, 1772 kg egg shell meal was produced from 1000 thirty-dozen cases.

243 Eleven samples of egg shell waste from commercial egg breaking plants were analyzed. The average ash was 91.1%, average protein was 7.56%, and lipid was 0.24%. The average sample contained 36.4% calcium.

283 Hatchery waste was found to be quite different from egg breaker waste. Broiler hatchery waste contained about 12.1% protein, 7% fat, and 38% ash.

335 Meeting Abstract. Dried egg shells were compared with oyster shell and ground limestone at 3.7 and 5.7%. Shell thickness was better for hens fed 5.7 than 3.7% calcium.

354 This paper is primarily concerned with the microbiological quality of eggs broken during processing. Biological responses to the products were not determined.



Hatchery Waste for Poultry (Back to Top.)

31 The protein quality of an extruded 25:75 hatchery by-product: soybean meal mixture, and soybean meal, were found to be similar. When autoclaved hatchery by-product meal was fed as a source of calcium and protein, bones grew normally. The turkey hatchery waste was bio-assayed using poults.

190 A well described hatchery waste meal sample was incorporated into broiler diets at the expense of fish meal. Birds grew better when fed the hatchery waste meal. Unfortunately, the fish meal sample was not described at all.

207 The hatchery by-product sample used was prepared by cooking for 2 hours in a 1:1 mixture with water. Neither cooking temperature nor pressure were given. The sample was dried at 60° for 24 hours and fat was extracted with hexane. The resulting material contained 30% crude protein, 59% ash, 10% fat, and 25.7% calcium. Chicks performed better when their diets contained 5% hatchery waste than 3.3% meat and bone meal.

237 Meeting Abstract. Hatchery by-products from a broiler and a leghorn hatchery were fed to layers in balanced diets. The amino acid and calcium availabilities were comparable to those from soybean meal, meat and bone meal, and limestone.

238 Meeting Abstract. Egg shell meal from an egg breaking plant was compared to limestone in balanced diets. Egg production was similar for the two calcium sources, although very poor by modern standards.

239 This appears to be the same experiments as described in paper #237, although the authorship is slightly different. The two products were "ground, heated and dehydrated". Further details of processing conditions were not presented.

240 Egg shell meals prepared by two different methods were compared in laying hen diets. The processing equipment, but not conditions, was detailed. The amino acid availabilities were very good and the calcium availability was equivalent to limestone.

242 This article describes engineering challenges for treating egg shell waste from breaking plants. Processing costs and meal value are discussed.

246 In this study hatchery by-product meal was compared to poultry by-product meal in laying hen diets. The hatchery by-product meal used supported excellent performance, even at 15% inclusion when it supplied 4% protein and 37% calcium to the diet.

247 The hatchery by-product meal used contained 26% protein and 20.9% calcium. When 4.6% of the hatchery by-product meal was incorporated into corn and soybean meal based diets, broiler performance improved, suggesting an unidentified growth factor.

286 The poultry hatchery waste fed here was described as being "cooked" 2:1, waste: water. No other details of the cooking were presented. The product contained 22.8% crude protein and 22.6% calcium. Broilers and layers performed comparably to controls when fed 5 and 12% of the waste, respectively.

290 Classic article pointing out that when properly processed (sterilized and ground) eggshells are as good a source of calcium as limestone or oyster shells for chicks and layers.

302 This is a short, popular press article describing an experiment with broiler and egg type hatchery waste by-product meals for layers. Processing conditions are not detailed in this article. Both meals supported excellent layer performance when incorporated in the diets at 8 or 16%.

358 Hatchery wastes boiled in water for about 30 minutes and then dried at 100°C for 20 hours contained 42% crude protein, 42% ether extract, and 3.9% ash. Broilers performed very well when the waste was included in starter and finisher diets at 10 and 7%, respectively. It is difficult to compare this product to other hatchery wastes since it is so low in ash (and therefore calcium).



Hatchery Wastes for Goats (Back to Top.)

264 Hatchery waste, when substituted for rice husk, improved intake and dry matter digestibility of dwarf goats.



Hen Meal Composition (Back to Top.)

176 This paper describes the chemical composition, unit density, durability, color and microbiological plate counts of spent hens after they were ground, blended with soybean meal (25:75, 50:50, or 75:25), and extruded. The products all contained about 52% crude protein and 7-8% ash, but 4.6, 9.4, and 15.8% fat for 25, 50 and 75% hen meal, respectively. Plate counts were significantly lower for the 50:50 blend.

315 This is a very nice review on the utilization of spent hens for human food. There is interesting comparative data on light versus heavy type hens.



Hen Meal for Poultry (Back to Top.)

30 Spent hen meals produced in three locations were compared. Processing parameters were not detailed. Meals were incorporated into diets at 0, 5, 10 or 15% at the expense of soybean meal, poultry oil and limestone. The authors conclude that 10% of the meal can be fed to achieve acceptable performance. However, body weights were reduced by 1/3 of a pound (169 g) by feeding 10% of the meal. Although this weight loss was "not significantly different" from the controls, it suggests that much more investigation is necessary to determine the cost-benefit ratio of the product. One source gave excellent results at 10% inclusion, so processing conditions may be critical to determining the products value.

37 This paper contains analytical data on spent hen meals produced at three different plants over a 27 week period. Processing conditions are not reported. Interestingly, variability in pepsin digestibility was not related to differences in amino acid digestibility determined in vivo.

40 Spent hen meals prepared by different methods were compared. Methods were well defined and are detailed in paper 278. Feeding 10% of the spent hen meals improved the post-molt performance of layers. Thus the products were fine, but it raises the question of what was lacking in the basal corn-based diet? The beneficial effect of the spent hen meals was probably related to their protein content. Performance was best when a 16% corn and soybean meal based diet was fed.

278 This is an important study with well defined products showing "the nutritional quality may vary greatly among samples". Since different types of equipment and different processing times and temperatures were used, the reasons for differences in quality are not apparent.

287 Spent hen meals produced under different conditions were compared. Broilers fed diets containing 3-9% of the meals performed as well as or better than controls, indicating that the meals were as good as or better than the corn and soybean meal that they replaced.

323 This is a very nice popular press article giving information on a particular process for producing spent hen meal and the economics of doing so.



Blood Meal for Ruminants (Back to Top.)

288 Poultry, blood and feather meals were compared as protein supplements for dairy heifers fed corn silage. No differences were found among the poultry by-products blends and soybean meal, fish meal or meat and bone meal. In this study the diets were available for ad libitum consumption.

84 Cattle fed molasses containing feather meal had faster gains, and heifers had heavier live weights at breeding and higher pregnancy rates than cattle fed molasses and urea. There was an advantage to combining blood and feather meals.

244 This early study compared two samples each of hydrolyzed feather meal, poultry by-products meal and poultry blood meal to fish meal, soybean meal and animal meat scrap in diets for broilers and layers. The best broiler growth came from chicks fed diets supplemented with the hydrolyzed feather meal. Egg production was poor by modern standards for layers whether given a protein supplement or not. Feed conversion was improved by feeding 3% hydrolyzed feather meal.

4002 This is a single page summary that concludes: "The data are consistent with a need to feed higher quantities of UIP in early lactation in diets with recommended levels of fiber". The actual amounts of feather and blood meals (or other diet ingredients) were not presented

4015 Abstract only: This study is not really about feather or blood meals since they were in the basal diet, but there were no controls. The study is a 2 x 2 factorial with two levels of urea and two levels of a fat supplement. All cows performed the same.

4019 Industry Summary Only - Results of two trials with mixed results: Feather meal was a superior supplement to urea in both trials, however, feather meal and blood was better than feather meal alone in molasses-based supplement for steers in one trial but not the other.

4020 Industry Summary Only - Very little specific data on cows or conditions used. It is emphasized that too much or too little by-products can inhibit performance.

4021 Industry Summary Only - In the first study, feather meal and blood meal were substituted into dairy rations at 16% crude protein. Milk yields were lower in cows fed the animal by-products, but the authors concluded the study was invalid because there was no appropriate statistical test. In a second study, no statistical differences were found in intake; milk production results weren't mentioned.

4022 Industry Summary Only - Very interesting study on the responses of steers to feather and blood meals for calves from weaning to finishing. In two different years, responses to protein supplements were dependent on the energy source fed: dry rolled corn or dry rolled corn plus wet corn gluten feed. The authors conclude that escape protein supplementation may be necessary to ensure maximum performance.

4024 Very interesting and well described study of cows fed a control diet or feather meal on a commercial farm. Unfortunately diet information, even how much feather meal was fed, was not given. Basically, there was no effect of feather meal on milk production, but feather meal increased milk protein and decreased milk fat. If data from cows more than 280 days postpartum was omitted, then milk fat also increased. If cows starting the trial less than 30 days postpartum were eliminated from the data set, then there were no significant differences in milk fat or protein. Data suggest it is important to know what part of the milking cycle cows are in when analyzing experiments.

4026 Industry Summary Only - An 85:15 feather meal: blood meal supplement increased milk production and protein when fed with a 17.5 but not 19.6% crude protein diet. Cows were in early lactation and fed alfalfa silage. The authors conclude that milk producers can feed less protein if a feather meal: blood meal supplement included in the ration.

4027 Industry Summary Only - No details of the trials were given. The authors concluded that feather meal cystine will not improve milk production or composition in methionine-limiting diets.

4038 Although there are a number of reports on feeding feather meal and blood meal to ruminants, this is one of a few that investigates the best combination of feather and blood meals. Results from two growth trials with calves show that about an 85:15 feather meal to blood meal mixture maximizes protein efficiency, there is a strong complimentary effect between the two.

4039 The first part of this report deals with processing. It was found that the best results are obtained when feather and blood meals are processed separately. Protein digestibility was reduced when blood meal was hydrolyzed with feather meal; when processed separately, no differences between feather meal, blood meal, and soybean meal could be detected in protein digestibility. In the last part of the report, blood meal and the blood meal/feather meal combination were shown to be the best protein sources. The appropriate protein supplement is an economic choice based on the relative costs of the ingredients.

5005 In these studies, no differences were observed in protein digestion or efficiency of utilization between feather meal and blood combinations, and soybean meal. Mature steers and growing lambs and calves were used in the trials. Blood and hydrolyzed feather meal supplements gave excellent results, although the precise economic value of feather and blood meal combinations are unknown.

5007 This is an industry summary of paper #196 discussing practical implications of the research. The data illustrate the inverse relationship between rumen degradability and intestinal absorption.

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