Isolation and Molecular Characterization of Chicken Feather Degrading Lysinibacillus spp Strain Kik1

Abstract

Large quantities of feathers are produced as byproduct in poultry farms. Keratinolytic bacteria utilizing keratinolytic enzymes have the  capability of breaking down feathers to reduce waste from the environment. Reweighing after drying was used to determine feather  biodegradation and spectrophotometric method for bacterial growth and keratinase activity. Thirteen bacterial isolates were screened in  two folds for biodegradation potential and keratinolytic activity using free cells of bacteria. The Primary Screening Phase illustrates four  (4) isolates that showed biodegradation potential of 65, 82, 68 and 73% tagged DO2, DO4, DO5 and DO8 respectively and were selected  into secondary phase of screening. Free Bacterial Resting Cells were utilized in which isolate DO4 illustrated greater biodegradation  capability of 96%. It was chosen as the best bacteria for further research. These bacteria had a 96% similarity with Lysinibacillus spp when  identified using the 16s rRNA gene sequence analysis. Lysinibacillus spp Strain KIK1 was registered in the GenBank with accession number  MZ701840.