Millions of tons of chicken feather waste are generated annually worldwide. In Pakistan, Poultry industries are ranked among the most important sectors contributing economically owing to the enormous consumption of chicken meat; on the other hand, it causes the accumulation of huge quantities of keratinous waste because of poor solid waste management strategies. Keratin is a major constituent in the structure of feathers, mainly composed of beta keratin. Being enriched in cysteine residues, keratin offers resistance towards most of the proteases. However, these proteins can be attacked by microbial keratinases. A total of 54 bacterial strains isolated from poultry waste (feathers) samples were screened for extracellular enzyme production such as amylase, gelatinase, caseinase and keratinase. On the basis of complete feather degradation profile in minimal basal medium within 72 hrs, studies on keratinase enzyme production were conducted with bacterial strains named as MW45 and MW48. Keratinase production from both the producer strains was found optimum at 45oC and maximum keratinase production was noticed at pH 9. Upon thermal characterization, the keratinase enzyme was found optimally active at 60oC and 70oC by MW45 strain and MW48 strain respectively.
Maria Muhammad Ashraf, Wajeeha Asad and Tabbassum Kiran
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