Feather meal is used in formulated animal feed and in organic fertilizer.
Steam pressure cookers with temperatures over 140 °C (284 °F) are used to "cook" and sterilize the feathers.
It is then dried, cooled and ground into a powder for use as a nitrogen source for animal feed (mostly ruminants) or as an organic soil amendment.
A 2012 study found that the use of feather meal may contribute to arsenic exposure in humans.
[2] Pollution characteristics and health risk assessment of arsenic transformed from feed additive organoarsenicals around chicken farms on the North China Plain