• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.1307-1314
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• 2010

This study was conducted to isolate and characterize a novel feather-degrading bacterium producing keratinase activity. A strain K9 was isolated from soil at poultry farm and identified as Xanthomonas sp. K9 by phenotypic characters and 16S rRNA gene analysis. The cultural conditions for the keratinase production were 0.3% fructose, 0.1% gelatin, 0.04% $K_2HPO_4$, 0.06% $KH_2PO_4$, 0.05% NaCl and 0.01% $FeSO_4$ with an initial pH 8.0 at $30^{\circ}C$ and 200 rpm. In an optimized medium containing 0.1% chicken feather, production yield of keratinase was approximately 8-fold higher than the yield in basal medium. The strain K9 effectively degraded chicken feather meal (67%) and duck feather (54%), whereas human nail and human hair showed relatively low degradation rates (13-22%). Total free amino acid concentration in the cell-free supernatant was about 25.799 mg/l. Feather hydrolysate produced by the strain K9 stimulated growth of red pepper, indicating Xanthomonas sp. K9 could be not only used to increase the nutritional value of chicken feather but also a potential candidate for the development of natural fertilizer applicable to crop plant soil.

• Mycobiology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.157-161
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• 2003

Various soil samples were collected from twenty-four areas of ten different poultry farms in Korea and screened for prevalence of keratinolytic fungi. Fourteen species of feather-associated fungi belonging to ten genera Acremonium, Alternaria, Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Curvularia, Fusarium, Monascus, Mucor, Penicillum, and Verticillium isolated from poultry soils were grown on keratin medium. Especially, Aspergillus spp. populations associated with the soil sample is $1{\times}10^5$ cfu/g. A. flavus, A. fumigatus, A. niger, A. nidulans, and A. terreus could utilize keratin of chicken feather and degrade it, producing sulphydryl-containing compounds detected as keratinase, cysteine and total proteins. Keratinolytic activities of five Aspergillus species also changed the pH of the medium more alkaline than those that were less keratinolytic.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.65-73
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• 1985

More than 1,000 chickens of Korean native Yeonsan Ogolgye (Natural Monument No. 256) were used in this study in order to investigate their various external characteristics. The aims of this study were to define the Ogolgye chicken as a breed, and to provide basal data necessary for the genetic improvement of this breed. The investigated items are as follows : color of feather and toe; presense or absence of shank feather; the number of toes: color of shank and comb; the growth rates of shank, comb and feathers in various feather tracts; and finally, the livability. Data and informations were presented in tabular form in table 1 through 12. In summary, the various external traits of the Korean native Ogolgye breed can be characterized as follows. It has normal feather than silkic one as in the western type, with black color per-dominant. The frquency of white feather color is very low. The color of toes is devided into two categories; black toes in black plumage lines, and white toes in white plumage lines. Both seres have single combs with black color. The shank is gray- black and featherless. The breed has normally four toes. The eye color is black.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.139-145
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• 2013

There are several loci controlling the feather color of birds, of which one of the most studied is Extended black (E) encoding the melanocortin 1-receptor (MC1R). Mutations in this gene affect the relative distribution of eumelanin, phaeomelanin. The association of feather color and sequence polymorphism in the melanocortin 1-receptor (MC1R) gene was investigated using Korean native chicken H breed (H_PL) and 'Woorimatdag' commercial chickens (Woorimatdag_CC). In order to correlate gene mutation to Korean native chicken feather color, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) from MC1R gene sequence were investigated. A total of 307 birds from H_PL and Woorimatdag_CC were used. H_PL have black, black-brown feather color and Woorimatdag_CC have black with brown spots or brown with black spots. There are 6 SNPs in MC1R gene, locus T69C, C212T, A274G, G376A, G636A, T637C. 3 SNPs are nonsynonymous that change amino acid. But it is difficult to find correlation of feather color and polymorphisms. It will be needed to increase the population of Korean native chicken H breed and correlation analysis of genetic variation with feather colors.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Poultry Science Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.77-79
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• 2003

The effects of dietary supplementation of feather meal digests(FM) and its digests on the growth of broiler chicks and taurine content in the broiler meat were examined. Total of 100 broiler chickens were assigned to five dietary treatments: T1； Control, T2； feather meal(FM) 5 ％ diet, T3； NaOH treated FM 5％ diet, T4； HNO$_3$treated FM 5 ％ diet and T5； synthetic taurine 0.5 % supplemented diet. Taurine content of leg muscle was significantly(P＜0.01) increased by treatments. The highest increase over the control was shown by 0.5 ％ taurine diet(170 ％), followed by FM diet(123 ％), NaOH treated FM diet(122 ％) and HNO$_3$treated FM diet(63 ％). Taurine content of breast muscle was increased by 246 ％ in 0.5 ％ taurine diet but FM diets were not significantly different from the control. Taurine content of heart muscle was not significantly affected by dietary treatments. There were big differences in the average taurine content of the parts or organ of the control birds; 778 $\mu\textrm{g}$/g leg muscle, 79 $\mu\textrm{g}$/g breast muscle and 1482 $\mu\textrm{g}$/g heart muscle. It was concluded that taurine content of leg muscle of broiler can be increased by supplementation of feather meal. Alkaline or acid treatment FM was not effective in improving taurine enrichment of the broiler meat.

• KOREAN POULTRY JOURNAL
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• v.6 no.6 s.56
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• pp.113-115
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• 1974

다음은 미국농무성의 외곽단체인 N.R.A 극동사무소 축산사료담당 '구리하라'박사가 N.R.A의 업무활동을 월간양계 독자를 위해 간략히 소개하고 있다. N.R.A(National Renderes Association)라고 하면 시료용 동물성 유지(Feed Grade Animal Fats)위 율곡분(Meat and Bone Meal), 우모분(Feather Meal)등을 공급하고 있는 대단위 단체인 것이다. 구리하라박사가 소개하고 있는 최근의 업무활동과 N.R.A의 사업을 소개한다.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.1337-1343
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• 2007

The aim of this study was to isolate chicken feather-degrading bacteria with high keratinolytic activity and to investigate cultural conditions affecting keratinolytic enzyme production by a selected isolate. A chicken feather-degrading bacterial strain CH3 was isolated from poultry wastes. Isolate CH3 degraded whole chicken feather completely within 3 days. On the basis of phenotypical and 16S rDNA studies, isolate CH3 was identified as Bacillus thuringiensis CH3. This strain is the first B. thuringiensis described as a feather degrader. The bacterium grew with an optimum at pH 8.0 and $37^{\circ}C$, where maximum keratinolytic activity was also observed. The composition of optimal medium for keratinolytic enzyme production was feather 0.1%, sucrose 0.7%, casein 0.3%, $K_2HPO_4$ 0.03%, $KH_2PO_4$ 0.04%, $MgCl_2$ 0.01% and NaCl 0.05%, respectively. The keratinolytic enzyme had a pH and temperature optima 9.0 and $45^{\circ}C$, respectively. The keratinolytic activity was inhibited ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, and metal ions like $Hg^{2+},\;Cu^{2+}\;and\;Zn^{2+}$. The enzyme activated by $Fe^{2+}$, dithiothreitol and 2-mercaptoethanol.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.177-184
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• 2021

Sex identification in day-old chicks is essential in the poultry industry. Currently, the feather-sexing using a sex-linked inheritance is a chick sexing method used extensively in the poultry industry. For chicks produced by feather-sexing, all females are early-feathering (EF) chicks and all males are late-feathering (LF) chicks. Therefore, investigating the effects of EF and LF phenotypes on production traits of chickens is critical. The purpose of this study was to analyze and compare the production performance between EF and LF chickens in Korean native commercial chickens. The results showed that the survival rate of the EF chickens was significantly higher than that of the LF chickens, from hatching to 12 weeks of age (P<0.05), with the highest difference observed in females. However, no significant difference was observed in body weight between the EF and LF chickens at almost all ages. In addition, no significant difference was observed between in feed utility, such as average daily feed intake and feed conversion ratio, between the EF and LF groups. In conclusion, although the survival rate of early-feathering chickens was superior to that of late-feathering chickens, no significant difference was observed in growth performance and feed utility among Korean native chickens. The results suggest that production capacity is not influenced by feathering type in the establishment of a breeder structure and production system for feather-sexing Korean native chickens, which is valuable for the practical application of feather-sexing in the poultry industry.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Poultry Science Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.102-103
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• 2001

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of feather digests on the growth of broiler chicks and taurine content in the broiler meat. In Experiment 1, a total of 40 broiler chickens(Ross) were assigned to 4 dietary treatments: control(T1), regular feather meal(FM) diet(R-FM, T2), NaOH treated FM diet(NaOH-FM,T3), HNO3 treated FM diet(HNO3-FM,T4). In Experiment 2, a total of 70 broiler chickens were assigned to 7 dietary treatments: T1~T4(same as those of Exp. 1), modified HNO3 treated FM diet(M-HNO3-FM,T5), hair meal diet(HM,T6) and 0.22% cystine supplemented diet(CYS,T7). Feather meals and hair meal were supplemented at the 5% in the diet. In Experiment 1 and 2, weight gain of chicks fed R-FM and NaOH-FM tended to be higher than those of the control and HNO3-FM. In Experiment 2, weight gain of chicks fed CYS was highest followed by NaOH-FM, HM, M-HNO3-FM, HNO3-FM, control and R-FM. In Experiment 1, taurine content in breast muscle of chicks fed NaOH-FM was significantly higher(P<0.05) than that of control. In Experiment 2, taurine content in breast muscle of chicks fed NaOH-FM and CYS tended to be higher than that of other groups. Taurine content in leg muscle was significantly different among treatments as NaOH-FM and R-FM being highest followed by M-HNO3-FM, CYS, control, HNO3-FM and BM. Taurine content in the liver(Exp. 1 and 2) and heart(Exp. 2) were not significantly affected by treatments. These results indicated that 5% NaOH-FM in the diet was effective in increasing taurine content in breast and leg muscle of broiler chicks.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.229-234
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• 2004

Feathers, which are almost pure keratin protein, are produced in large amounts as a waste by-product at poultry-processing plants. Keratinolytic enzymes may have important uses in biotechnological processes involving keratin-containing wastes from poultry and leather processes. In this study, screening and identification of keratin-degrading bacteria were investigated. Five keratin-degrading bacterial strains (F3-1, F3-4, F7-1, C1-1, C1-2) were isolated from compost and decayed chicken feather. On the basis of morphological, physiological studies, and Biolog system, all isolates were identified as the genus Bacillus. Among them, the strain F7-1 had the highest feather-degrading activity and was selected for further taxonomical study. Phylogenetic analysis of strain F7-1 based on comparison of 165 rDNA sequences revealed that this strain is closely related to Bacillus megaterium.