Studies on Optimal Production of Keratinase by Bacillus cereus 35 Isolated from Feather Dump Sites in Enugu Metropolis, Enugu State, Nigeria

Chicken feathers are usually difficult to degrade due to their hard keratinous nature. Their inadequate methods of disposal have brought about environmental problems and loss of possible essential amino acids. Keratinases produced by bacteria including Bacillus spp. could be used to alleviate most of the disposal problems hence, the need to optimize the submerged fermentation process for maximum keratinase production from Bacillus cereus 35 was crucial. The Bacillus cereus 35 was isolated and identified previously using spread plate method and was subjected to various submerged fermentation process parameters assay for maximum keratinase production through one-factor-at-a-time method. The Bacillus cereus 35 keratinase was produced optimally with 1% inoculum concentration at 30ºC for 8 days in a fermentation medium of pH 8.0 containing 1% whole chicken feather and 0.1% casein as carbon and nitrogen sources. A higher keratinase yield (111.2%) was achieved after optimization when compared to the pre-optimization yield. The result indicates that the assessed fermentation parameters positively influenced the keratinase production by Bacillus cereus 35