Here's what I got from Dr. Paul Brown of Purdue University who's main thing is the research of fish feeds:
When poultry, primarily chickens, are processed, there are two feed ingredients that result from the waste. Individual processors may or may not combine various fractions of the waste, but the basic 2 feed ingredients that can be dried, ground and sold as feed ingredients are poultry by-product meal and feather meal. PBP is generally considered a better quality ingredient, but feather meal has been used in a wide variety of diets for aquatic animals. Feather meal is a high protein ingredient, containing a high concentration of sulfur amino acids, methionine and cystine. Digestibility of feather meal is typically lower than other feed ingredients, often in the 60-70% range. Thus, feather meal is commonly used as a source of sulfur amino acids, not as a filler. Feather meal is typically a safe ingredient. It must pass all FDA/USDA rules and regs for use in animal feeds. I am not aware of any ill health effects caused by feather meal in animal feeds. If the question is about using feather meal as the sole nutrient input, I could not support that recommendation. But then, no single ingredient should be used as the only source of nutrients."
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 01/05/13 01:04 PM.
