Vol. 10, Special Issue 7 (2021)

Author(s):
SV Bharathi and Indu V Raj

Abstract:
Studies were undertaken on the feather of broiler chicken of six to eight weeks of age and culled White Leghorn birds above 64 weeks of age, slaughtered at Meat Technology Unit, Mannuthy. The feather samples were collected from a total of 24 birds comprising of six males and females from the broiler and layer groups. The tensile strength was tested on an Instron 5848 Micro-tester with a 2530–439 load cell, 12.7 mm gauge length and 1.27 mm min^-1 cross-head speed. The mean tensile strength of the barb of broiler male, broiler female, layer male and layer female was 30.92±1.81, 28.27±2.32, 43.78±1.33 and 42.05±1.25 MPa respectively. The tensile strength was more for layer chicken than broiler (p < 0.01) and there was no significant difference between sexes. Thermo-gravimetric analysis was done at a rate of heating of 10 °C/min, 2.5mg sample weight, nitrogen mode of heating and a temperature range of 0-1000 °C. Both broiler and layer feather fibre exhibited similar thermal stability. They showed the first decrease in mass of 5 per cent from about 25 °C to 80 °C due to the loss of free water and a second decline of weight at about 230 °C from where the chicken fibre gradually started to decompose. The second stage of weight loss process occurred from 230 °C to 330 °C resulting in about 40 per cent loss of feather fibre mass. It could be suggested that the drying temperature for chicken feather fibre should be above 80 °C, while the processing temperature for chicken feather fibre should be controlled below 230 °C.