A research team from the Department of Fisheries, Faculty of Agriculture at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Indonesia has created an innovative method to transform chicken feather waste into a viable raw material for fish feed. Although chicken feathers are usually seen as worthless waste, their study showed that feathers can be processed into a cost-effective alternative to traditional feed components. The research, titled “Proximate and Amino Acid Analysis of Processed Chicken Feather Meal for Fish Feed,” aimed to enhance the nutritional content of feather waste through fermentation and hydrolysis techniques.

Feathers collected from the Berbah Poultry Slaughterhouse in Yogyakarta were treated using two approaches: probiotic fermentation and chemical hydrolysis with hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide. The produced feather meal was analyzed for moisture, ash, fat, and protein content, along with amino acid composition using Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) to determine nutritional improvements.

Probiotic fermentation was found to be the most effective method, increasing crude protein content to 78.18%. Significant amounts of essential amino acids were also detected, including isoleucine (14,763.26 µg/g), histidine (12,043.83 µg/g), glycine (326.51 µg/g), methionine (138.17 µg/g), arginine (33,321.63 µg/g), phenylalanine (22,815.65 µg/g), and leucine (44,511.41 µg/g). These findings demonstrate the strong potential of fermented feather meal as a high-quality protein source for fish feed.

In addition to providing a solution for poultry waste management, this innovation offers a sustainable and cost-efficient alternative for aquaculture feed, which accounts for 60–70% of fish farming expenses. Utilizing by-products such as fermented feathers could reduce costs while maintaining feed quality. Nevertheless, further studies are needed to evaluate fish growth performance, Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR), digestibility, and overall fish health. Although the processed feathers show promising nutritional value, challenges remain with protein digestibility due to the resilient keratin structure, indicating the need for advanced biotechnological methods, including specialized microbes or more efficient proteolytic enzymes.