Productive performance and carcass yield of turkey fed feather meal treated with NaOH

Objective. Evaluate the productive performance and carcass yield of growing turkeys fed with diets including feather meal. Materials and methods. The treatments were: a control diet and two diets with feather meal (FM) treated with 50 or 100 g of NaOH/kg (5% inclusion) each. A random block design was used. Feed consumption and weight gain were recorded every two weeks. Productive performance data was analyzed using the MIXED procedure of the SAS statistical program. Carcass yield was analyzed using the GLM procedure of the SAS statistical program. Results. Weight gain (WG), feed consumption (FC), carcass yield and composition were higher in turkeys fed with the control diet, in comparison to those fed with FM diets (p<0.05). However, Turkeys fed diets with 100 g NaOH/kg presented higher WG, FC, carcass yield and thigh weight (p<0.05) than turkeys fed diets with 50 g NaOH/kg. Conclusions. The use of FM reduces the productive performance and carcass yield in turkeys. However, improvement on productivity and carcass yield were observed when FM treatment with NaOH increased from 50 to 100 g/kg.