Get rid of chicken feathers in 30 hours

Good news for poultry farm and abattoir owners. Disposal of huge quantities of chicken feathers will soon no longer be an arduous task, thanks to a new micro-organism that can disintegrate the protein in them in just about 30 hours.

Chicken feathers usually take five to seven years to disintegrate because of the keratin component in them. They can’t be burnt because the process releases large quantities of sulphur, compounds of which are harmful to animal and plant life.

The micro-organism was discovered by Jyoti Jadhav, head of the biotechnology department of Shivaji University in Kolhapur, and her research student, Ranjit Gurav.

“We were collecting micro-organisms from the soil and found six of them capable of disintegrating chicken feathers in various time-frames,” said Jadhav, who had been working with Gurav on this project for the last three-and-a-half years.

Of the six, one was found to be potent and was deposited with the International Database Bank in the US. Little did Jadhav and Gurav know that they had chanced upon a new species of micro-organism, which was later named Chryseobacterium species Research Bio Technology.

“Chicken feathers have to be placed in a liquid mixed with the micro-organism. This mixture needs aeration. This is a simple method and the technology can be easily transferred to laymen,” said Gurav.

“The residue contains natural amino acids, which are much better biofertilisers than chemically-made amino acids. The trials of this liquid remains on plants has shown good results,” said Jadhav.

The new micro-organism can also be used, instead of chemicals, in tanneries for removing hair from hide.

Jadhav was recently honoured with the Young Woman Scientist Award of the Biotech Research Society India. A fellow of the Maharashtra Academy of Sciences, she has authored more than 50 research articles. She is also well-known for her work on bioremediation of textile dyes and effluents and their toxicity analysis. She has also been conducting research on medicines used to treat Parkinson’s disease and melanin.

While speaking to DNA, Jadhav thanked university vice-chancellor NJ Pawar, biochemistry department head SP Govindvar and emeritus professor VA Bapat for assisting her in the project.