The purpose of this experiment was to isolate and screen the microorganisms from the soil where chicken feathers were piled for a long time and identify them biologically. Single-factor test and response surface methodology (RSM) analyses were used to explore the optimum conditions for the growth and fermentation of a strain. Screening of bacterial strains from the soil where feathers were piled for a long time was performed, and 12 keratinolytic bacterial strains were isolated. One of these isolates, CH-7, was found to be the most effective feather-degrading strain, which was identified as Lactococcus lactis KU568489.1. The growth situation of feather keratin degrading bacterium analysis results showed that the best degradation effect of CH-7 was found in oxygen, inoculation 5％, initial pH=6.5, fermentation temperature 30℃, speed 220 r ? min-1 and fermentation time 36 h, and CH-7 had the highest degradation rate of feather keratin. The optimization analysis of RSM showed that there was more significances of the three factors, 32℃, pH 6.3 and amount of inoculum at 5.7％ on the degradation of feather keratin. Based on the above results, the feather degrading bacterium, Lactococcus lactis CH-7, was obtained by screening, 30℃ and pH 5.5-6.5 were the best growth conditions. The oxygen, the amount of inoculum 5.7％, the fermentation temperature, 32℃, pH 6.3 and the rotational speed 220 r ? min-1 were the best fermentation conditions. Under these conditions, 38.48％ degradation rate was obtained after 36 h fermentation, which demonstrated the strain CH-7 was potential to the fermented feather meal for feed.