Recycling chromium for poultry feed

The Tamil Nadu State Council for Science and Technology, Chennai, has awarded
the Rs1.10-lakh research project to Dr P.N. Sudha, Professor of Chemistry,
Dhanabagyam Krishnaswamy Mudaliar College for Women, Vellore. According to Dr.
Sudha, the two-year project is aimed at the removal of chromium from leather
wastes through a cost-effective method.

Leather shavings, owing to high
protein content, are often used in the manufacture of poultry feed, along with
corn flour. It was found, after an analysis of the poultry feed collected from
different chicken shops, that the samples contained very high concentration of
chromium. Chickens that ate the feed were often found to have high levels of
chromium in different parts of the body.

Land filling of leather wastes
caused pollution of the environment since leaching of the wastes resulted in
polluting the land and the water resources in the vicinity. The use of the
leather wastes as chicken feed was a good alternative, provided the chromium and
other toxic substances were properly removed, she said.

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