Extrusion processing used to convert dead poultry, feathers, eggshells, hatchery waste, and mechanically deboned residue into feedstuffs for poultry

In Experiments 1 and 2, dead broilers (3 and 5 wk old) and dead turkeys (6 and 12 wk old), and broiler feathers were obtained from commercial sources and evaluated for nutritional contribution when co-extruded with soybean meal (48% CP). Samples of each age of dead birds and two feather treatments, with and without 5.13% proteolytic enzyme premix (INSTA-PRO), were blended with soybean meal in an 25:75 ratio (wt/wt, wet basis) and processed through an INSTA-PRO extruder. The resulting six extruded products were used in formulating isocaloric and isonitrogenous diets and were compared with a diet containing corn-soybean meal or corn-soybean meal with commercial feather meal when fed to broilers from 1 to 21 days of age. In Experiment 1, feeding diets containing dead broilers supported higher (P less than or equal to .05) body weight than those receiving the corn-soybean meal control diet. There was no difference (P > .05) in feed conversion. Enzyme treatment of the feathers improved growth rate but not feed conversion over the untreated feather diet in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, dead poultry and enzyme-treated feather extruded products were good feed ingredients for broilers with feed efficiency and growth responses comparable to the corn-soybean meal control diet. In Experiments 3 and 4, centrifuged eggshells from egg-breaking plants (Source A or B), centrifuged hatchery solid (Source C or D), centrifuged hatchery solid plus liquid (Source C or D), and mechanically deboned turkey frame residue were each blended with ground corn to produce mixtures with 15 to 25% moisture and processed through an INSTA-PRO extruder. Two experiments involving 480 Hy-Line 36 laying hens were conducted for three 28-day periods to evaluate hen performance and egg quality when the extruded products were incorporated into the diet. No differences were found (P < .05) in egg production, egg weight, feed conversion, and egg specific gravity for all diets. The microbiological test (total aerobic count) indicated that the pre-extrusion blended mixtures had significant numbers of colony-forming units per gram of sample. The extruded products that exited from the extruder barrel were free of aerobic microorganisms. The results of these studies indicated that high temperature-short time extrusion is an alternative method for converting these poultry industry residues into feedstuffs.