Reproductive Performance of Hens Fed Field Beans and Potential Relationships to Vicine Metabolism

Abstract

Field beans (faba beans, broad beans, horse beans, ackerbohnen, Vicia faba L.) depress weight of eggs when fed to laying hens. Vicine isolated from field beans has been shown to depress egg weight and hatchability when fed in large amounts. The present study was undertaken to determine the effect of using three varieties of field beans, varying in tannin and total vicines content, at 20% in breeder diets on reproductive performance of hens and associated vicine transfer from the diet to the egg. Data on egg production, feed consumption, egg weight, body weight, egg quality, hatchability, and hen blood chemistry were obtained. Direct spectrophotometric and high pressure liquid chromatographic (HPLC) analyses of field beans, egg albumen, and egg yolk were conducted. Performance of the hens was excellent on all production characteristics except that there was a nonsignificant reduction in egg weight, a significant reduction in egg shell thickness for hens fed all three types of field beans, and a highly significant reduction in hatchability of eggs from hens fed one but not the other two sources of field beans. The hatchability effect was not correlated with vicine or tannin content of the field beans and only traces of vicine were transferred to the egg by the hen from the diet. Although larger amounts of vicine depressed hatchability when injected into fertile eggs, the trace amounts found in eggs from feeding field beans did not account for the reduction in hatchability observed in this study. It is possible that the hydrolysis product of vicine, divicine or the analogous product from convicine, isouramil, or both, may be involved in toxicity, because these substances are known to be the cause of a hemolytic anemia in some humans that suffer from favism due to consumption of field beans.

Vicine and Convicine in Common Vetch (Vicia sativa) Seeds Enhance β-Cyanoalanine Toxicity in Male Broiler Chicks

“…Again, dietary vicine and convicine were not determined in their study. Moreover, in the absence of BCA, the role of dietary convicine through its aglucone isouramil in reducing hatchability and increasing embryo mortality was suggested by Naber et al (1988).…”

Exploration of the Diversity of Vicine and Convicine Derivatives in Faba Bean (Vicia faba L.) Cultivars: Insights from LC-MS/MS Spectra

“…After ingesting faba beans, individuals with a low-activity variant of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase in erythrocytes suffer from favism, a life-threatening decrease in viable red blood cells [ 13 , 14 ]. The use of faba beans as animal feed is likewise limited, as this is known to impact productivity negatively, for instance, in poultry farming [ 15 ]. Contrary to this, the abundance of vicine and convicine seems to have a negligible impact on weaner pig performance, which is influenced by other antinutritional factors present in the faba beans [ 16 ].…”

Fine‐mapping of the major locus for vicine and convicine in faba bean (Vicia faba) and marker‐assisted breeding of a novel, low vicine and convicine winter faba bean population

“…VC can also have negative effects on monogastric livestock such as laying hens and broilers (Guillaume & Bellec, 1977;Halle, 2006;Larbier & Leclercq, 1994;Marquardt et al, 1981;Muduuli et al, 1982;Munduuli et al, 1981;Naber et al, 1988;Olaboro, Marquardt, Campbell, & Fröhlich, 1981;. Duc et al (1989) reported the presumably monogenetically inherited low VC (LVC) content of the genebank accession 1268(4)(1) from Radzikov (Poland), which has since been used in breeding and research.…”

“…VC can also have negative effects on monogastric livestock such as laying hens and broilers (Guillaume & Bellec, 1977; Halle, 2006; Larbier & Leclercq, 1994; Marquardt et al, 1981; Muduuli et al, 1982; Munduuli et al, 1981; Naber et al, 1988; Olaboro, Marquardt, Campbell, & Fröhlich, 1981; Olaboro, Marquardt, & Campbell, 1981).…”