Effects of Diet Composition on Vanadium Toxicity in Laying Hens

Abstract

Vanadium added to laying rations as NH4 VO3, VOCl2 or VOSO4 at levels of 20 to 80 ppm resulted in a rapid and substantial reduction in albumen quality as measured by Haugh units. Dietary vanadium also resulted in reduced egg production, egg weight, body weight, feed consumption, and poorer shell quality as measured by specific gravity. Ascorbic acid at .4 to .5% effectively protected the hen from the reduction in albumen quality, egg production, and body weight for up to 40 ppm vanadium, but not the reduction of egg weight. Replacement of soybean meal by 20% dietary cottonseed meal also protected the hen from the reduction in albumen quality, egg production, and body weight for up to 40 ppm vanadium. Added at levels of 4 to 8 times the molecular concentration of vanadium, EDTA had no consistent effect on vanadium toxicity. Dehydrated grass, at levels of 6 to 12%, maintained egg production but had no effects on the reduction in albumen quality caused by 40 ppm vanadium. Replacement of soybean meal with herring fish meal and part of the grain with sucrose intensified the depression of albumen quality, egg production, and loss of body weight caused by added vanadium. Neither varying dietary protein levels from 12 to 25% using soybean meal nor the addition of 20 ppm chromium had any effect on the toxicity of added vanadium. It appears that vanadium expresses its toxicity in laying hens by several routes since the protective effects of different dietary changes and additives differentially affected the loss of albumen quality, egg production, body weight, and egg weight.

Antioxidant enzyme activity and lipid peroxidation in the blood of rats co-treated with vanadium (V+5) and chromium (Cr+3)

“…However, other investigators did not demonstrate any significant changes in the diet and fluid intake (Bishayee and Chatterjee 1995;De Tata et al 2000;Poggioli et al 2001) or in body weight gain (Dai et al 1995;Thompson et al 2002) after treating rats with vanadate or vanadyl in drinking water. A reduction in diet intake and/or body weight gain after administration of vanadium was also shown in other animals: in laying hens (Ousterhout and Berg 1981), sheep (Hansard et al 1982), chicks (Cupo and Donaldson 1987), and in male mice (Llobet et al 1993). Reduced fluid intake after SMV treatment, as it was shown (Table 3), might be caused by an altered taste of vanadate solution which might lead to development of rats' aversion to drink, and in consequence, cause its decreased consumption.…”

Dietary High Vanadium Causes Oxidative Damage-Induced Renal and Hepatic Toxicity in Broilers

“…Moreover, the embryotoxic, fetotoxic, and teratogenic potential of vanadium sulfate pentahydrate have been evaluated in Swiss mice [10]. In vivo studies with chickens, the results have shown that dietary vanadium reduced egg production, egg weight, body weight, feed consumption, and poorer shell quality as measured by specific gravity [11]. Certainly, vanadium toxicity is decreased with increasing dietary protein [12].…”

Effectiveness of Ascorbic Acid and Chromium in Counteracting the Negative Effects of Dietary Vanadium on Interior Egg Quality

“…For laying hens, adding Cr to the basal diet significantly alleviated the detrimental effects of V on interior egg quality in one laboratory (Jensen and Maurice, 1980), but not in another (Ousterhout and Berg, 1981). Recently, Cr also failed to counteract the deleterious effect of V on albumen quality in a study in the authors' laboratory (Benabdeljelil and Jensen, 1989).…”

“…The adverse effects of dietary V on albumen quality have been reported by Berg et al (1963), Jensen et al (1978), Ousterhout and Berg (1981), and Eyal and Moran (1984). Berg et al (1963) found that 30 ppm of V fed as ammonium metavanadate to laying hens depressed egg production, while only 15 to 20 ppm of V were required to lower albumen quality.…”

“…Egg production was reduced to 19.5% after 3 wk when hens were fed a diet with 100 ppm of V. On the other hand, Hafez and Kratzer (1976b) found no effect on egg production when hens were fed a diet with 100 ppm of V; but eggshell quality was significantly improved. Decreases in Haugh units, egg production, and shell quality were observed by Ousterhout and Berg (1981) when hens were fed 40 ppm of V.…”