When the gene expression levels among the sampled feather follicles were compared, the β-keratin genes located on Chr2 and Chr6 were expressed at the highest levels in flight feather follicles, which were higher than in contour feather follicles (fig. 4 B), suggesting that Chr2_FKs may be more important in forming stiff feather structures.
Moreover, we were unable to extract bacterial DNA from 2 nest samples (2 control samples) and 4 feather samples (2 from control treatment, 1 from Nisin and 1 from TSB).
(Is that why they need the Benadryl, to calm them down?) The other peer-reviewed study, reported in a journal called Science of the Total Environment, found arsenic in every sample of feather meal tested.
Also in 2007, oropharyngeal and cloacal swab samples, skin, and feather samples were collected from 23 carcasses in the field before they were frozen for comparison with samples collected from the same animals in the laboratory during necropsy.
To isolate keratinolytic microorganisms, soil samples from feather composts were extracted from six areas (sample A to F) of a poultry farm in Tainan, Taiwan.
We were only able to sample second feathers from 21 birds because two birds died and, in a third, an induced feather did not regrow.
In one sample, the feathers had been gilded to look like tarnished bronze, then layered like fish scales; in others, they resembled seashells, armadillo plates, blackened fingernails.
The emission intensities have been normalized by the blue emission peak of the sample with feather-like nanostructures.
McKellar and his colleagues "present an exciting and broad sample of feathers," says Richard Prum, an evolutionary ornithologist at Yale University.
But why did the banned substance show up recently in eight of 12 samples of "feather meal," the ground-down plumage leftover from commercial poultry production?
Not all other individuals could be successfully typed for the new markers due to different sample types (feathers vs. blood).
