Find in Library

The keratinase-producing microbes can readily change the feather waste into more bioavailable peptides and amino acids. This study aimed to improve two-stage fermented feather meal-soybean meal product (TSFP) quality with five selected Bacillus strains and <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> Y10, as well as investigate the effects of TSFP on growth performance, blood biochemistry, and immunity of nursery pigs. In trial 1, 100 hybrid piglets (Duroc x KHAPS) were randomly assigned to dietary supplementation of 5% fish meal or 5% TSFP prepared with 0, 32, 40, or 48 h in the first-stage fermentation. The results showed that the body weight (BW), average daily gain (ADG), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of fermented groups were significantly better than the unfermented group (<i>p</i> < 0.05) at weeks 0 to 3 and 0 to 5. The ADG of 32-hr and 48-hr TSFP groups were better than the unfermented group (<i>p</i> < 0.05) at weeks 3 to 5. In trial 2, 80 hybrid piglets (Duroc × KHAPS) were randomly assigned into 5% fish meal or different supplementation levels of TSFP (32-hr first-stage fermented time) at 0, 2.5, or 5%. The 5% TSFP group had better BW, ADG, FCR, and PEF than the 0% group (<i>p</i> < 0.05) at weeks 0 to 5. Furthermore, the ex vivo mitogen-induced lymphoblastogenesis, the interferon-γ production, the oxidative burst activity, and the IgG production of the 5% TSFP group were higher than the fish meal group (<i>p</i> < 0.05). In conclusion, the first-stage fermentation time can be shortened from 48 h to 32 h using selected Bacillus strains in TSFP production when supplemented at 5% of the diet for nursery pigs shows the best growth performance and immunity.