National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS)
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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692 Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
Studies were undertaken on the feather of broiler chicken of six to eight weeks of age, slaughtered at Meat Technology Unit, Mannuthy. The feather samples were collected from a total of 12 birds comprising of six males and females from the broiler groups. The lengths of barbs varied depending on their location and at the base of the rachis it was longer than those at the tip. The mean length and diameter of rachis and barbs exhibited a significant difference between males and females. The mean aspect ratio of the rachis and barbs was maximum in female birds and exhibited a significant difference between groups. The barbs possessed a higher slenderness ratio/aspect ratio than the rachis. The rachis of chicken feather contributed to 53 per cent of the total weight of a feather while the barbs contributed to 47 per cent. Thus chicken feathers possessed approximately half feather barbs and half rachis by weight in the present study and showed no significant difference between male and female birds under study. The density of whole chicken feathers measured in the present study exhibited no significant difference between sexes. The moisture content of the chicken feather fractions varied between eight and eleven percent. The moisture content of the barbs was the highest, followed by that for whole feathers and rachis. The moisture regain values followed the same trend as the moisture content of the feather fractions and exhibited no significant difference between sexes.
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