FEATHER-DEGRADING BACTERIA DO NOT AFFECT FEATHERS ON CAPTIVE BIRDS

Abstract

Abstract Attention has recently been focused on microbes that occur in the plumage of wild birds and can degrade feathers under laboratory conditions and in poultry-waste composters. In particular, Bacillus licheniformis, a soil bacterium, was found in the plumage of many birds netted in eastern North America, and poultry feathers were rapidly broken down when incubated in a suspension of this bacterium (Burtt and Ichida 1999). If feather-degrading microbes affect wild birds under normal conditions, they may have played an important role in the evolution of molt, plumage color, and sanitation behavior, such as sunning and preening. We performed the first test on whether a feather-degrading bacterium can degrade feathers of live birds housed outdoors under seminatural conditions. We found no evidence that B. licheniformis degraded wing feathers of Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) when applied twice (with a two-week interval) during the winter, despite the fact that it degraded Northern Cardinal f...