Team:ColegioFDR Peru
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Abstract
One of the most persistent, complicated problems in poultry agriculture is the removal of feather waste. Chicken feathers are mostly comprised of keratin, a strong, fibrous protein that can not be degraded by the likes of conventional proteases such as bromelain, pepsin, or papain. Failure to remove these feathers can lead to extreme health, as well as environment, related issues involving the transmission of diseases such as Avian Flu (H5N1), a disease that can wipe out chicken populations, and also has the potential for devastating effects on humans, having killed approximately 60% of all humans who have been afflicted with the disease since 1997. Our project works to develop a safe, environmentally-friendly solution to this problem involving implementing keratinases kerA & kerBPN into DH5-Alpha E. coli through transformation and assembling a prototype which allows for the degradation of the keratin in the aforementioned feathers.
