Nutritional Evaluation of Detoxified and Raw Common Vetch Seed (Vicia sativa L.) Using Diets of Broilers

This work demonstrates that both processed and raw common vetch seed ( Vicia sativa L.) can substitute for 10% of the corn−soybean in a balanced diet for 1 month without affecting the growth and feed utilization of young broilers. Two specimens of processed vetch, detoxified by cooking with decantation, contained 22.4 and 25.8% crude protein (N × 6.25). The amino acid composition remained close to that of raw vetch. Processed and raw vetch seeds have relatively high contents of lysine, leucine, arginine, and phenylalanine plus tyrosine and low contents of methionine plus cystine and tryptophan. The lack of toxicity observed for raw vetch is consistent with the dietary level of β-cyanoalanine. Low, but detectable, residues (<0.02%) of this toxin were present in the chicken muscle. The findings are relevant to the potential use of processed vetch for human nutrition and of raw vetch for young poultry. Keywords: Processed and raw common vetch seed; Vicia sativa L.; nutrition; broilers; β-cyanoalanine