Toxicity of Vetch Seed for Chickens

THE Chickling vetch (Lathyrus sativus), the Vetchling (Lathyrus cicera), and the Common vetch (Vicia sativa) have for centuries been extensively grown in Southern Europe, Algeria and India for farm stock and human consumption as well (Stockman, 1934). In the USSR, the 1935 area under vetch cultivation amounted to 1,691,000 hectars (Kupche, 1938). The high nutritional value of the vetch, the capacity of nitrogen fixation, and the ability to grow in even poor soil, as well as the resistance to a number of pests, are placing it in the class of most valuable feed plants, especially at the present time of alarming feed shortages. The average chemical composition of the seed of the common vetch is as follows (in percent of dry substance) (Kupche, 1938): The main part of the protein consists of a globulin “vicinin,” which is accompanied by a small amount of an albumin (legumelin) and up to 2.33 . . .