Las semillas de veza (Vicia sativa, L) en la alimentación de los pollos de carne

Abstract

Three tests have been carried out with growing chickens in order to study the nutritive value of the
vetch seed (Vicia sativa, L.). By including vetch seed meal at the 26.7% level to an otherwise normal diet, there was a great number of dead chickens; this number reached 50% of the animals under test after 9 days. At the necropsy, the kidneys and the liver were the organs most directly affected. When the vetch seed meal was added at the 20% level, no chicken died, but after 28 days their weight was clearly lower than that of chickens fed a control diet with an equal percentage of common field beans (Vicia faba) seed meal. At the same age, the weight of chickens fed a diet containing 13% of vetch seed meal was very similar to that of chickens fed a ration containing an equal percentage of common field beans seed meal. When using vetch seed meal or common field beans seed meal at the 10% or 7% levels, the growth of chickens in the four groups under test was very similar, though the slight differences in weight in both cases were favourable to chickens fed with rations containing vetch seed meal