Abstract
Feathers contribute for 5-7% of chicken's overall mass and of their recalcitrant existence, have been one of the main contaminants. A decent provider of minerals, amino acids, and peptides to be used as fertilizer may be a feather made up of 90 percent keratin. Keratins are tough fibrous proteins, not soluble in organic solvents and water, frequently gathered in nature and major skin, hair, hoof, feather, nail, horn, etc. components, and keratin-degrading microorganisms like archaea, bacteria, fungi, and actinomycetes, use keratinases to attack keratin. Some microbes have a keratinase enzyme used to degrade the keratin found in poultry waste. As conventional feather deterioration strategies absorb vast quantities of energy and reduce the overall consistency of the proteins, this offers a good choice for the management of poultry. Deterioration of keratin by keratinolytic bacteria can, therefore, be an option to the production of eco-friendly, cost-effective, inexpensive, and good source for minerals and nitrogen (N) as possible organic fertilizers. Degraded keratin has a lot of applications in various other fields like, detergent industry, leather industry, etc. This review focuses on properties of keratinases, different types of keratinases, and different isolation methods for the diagnosis and characterization of keratinolytic bacteria obtained from the poultry waste.