Experiments were carried out to study the effect of different doses of gamma irradiation (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 kilo gray; kGy) on some nutritive components and chemical aspects pertaining to quality of fish meal and meat-bone meal. The radiation doses required to reduce the total microbial load and Salmonella sp. one log cycle (D-10) in fish meal and meat-bone meal were determined. Results indicated that gamma irradiation of fish meal and meat-bone meal with 5-20 kGy doses had no effects on the total acidity values but increased the values of lipid oxidation and total volatile basic nitrogen. D-10 of total microbial load and Salmonella sp. were 833 and 313 Gy for fish meal and 526 Gy and 278 Gy for meat-bone meal, respectively. It can be concluded that radiation processing could be employed in the recycling of fish and meat-bone meals by using them as feedstuffs in poultry diets with no fear of losing their nutritive components. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.