animal and poultry
waste management research:
a progress report

Conversion of Ensiled Poultry, Fish and Sweet Potato By-Products
Into High-Value Poultry and Aquaculture Feed Ingredients
The Animal and Poultry Waste Management Center

The goal of this project is to develop high-value animal feed products from agricultural wastes such as poultry carcasses. Farmers must now spend time and money disposing of these wastes. Scientists developed a method of mixing fermented poultry carcasses (see Development and Demonstration of a Fermentation/Preservation System for Converting Poultry Mortality and Sweet Potatoes into Added-Value Products) and sweet potato waste (culled sweet potatoes) to form a product that may be used as an animal feed ingredient. Ground poultry (lactic acid fermented or fresh) is mixed with dried sweet potato waste, and the mixture then run through an extruder. While being extruded, the mixture is cooked briefly at high pressure, which destroys any pathogens and stabilizes the product. The result is a product similar in nutritional value to corn. It also has good organoleptic properties; animals to which it has been fed appear to like it. The product has been fed to chickens, turkeys and Talapia fish with no adverse effects on growth or health. It appears the product may also have value as feed for various aquaculture species, particularly crayfish and crab. Processing costs are being analyzed to determine if production of the poultry-sweet potato product is economically feasible. In addition, techniques have been developed to ferment waste sweet potatoes, and the fermented product shows promise as cattle and aquaculture feed. Fermented poultry carcasses also show promise as aquaculture feed.

Funding: $51,500
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture Grant
Status: Ongoing

Principal Investigator: Dr. Peter R. Ferket, associate professor, Poultry Science, North Carolina State University, phone: (919) 515-5409, fax: (919) 515-7070, email: PFERKET@WOLF.CES.NCSU.EDU

Collaborators: Dr. Jesse L. Grimes, assistant professor/extension turkey specialist, Poultry Science, North Carolina State University; Dr. Larry F. Stikeleather, professor, Biological and Agricultural Engineering, North Carolina State University; Dr. Leon C. Boyd, associate professor, Food Science, North Carolina State University; Dr. Harry V. Daniels, aquaculture specialist, Zoology, North Carolina State University