Consumption indices in silkworm as influenced by feeding of transgenic mulberry

Abstract

Mulberry (Morus indica L.) is the sole food plant of the silkworm (Bombyx mori L.) and has been exploited commercially in the sericulture industry. Consequently, a major determining factor for enhancing the production of silk is to produce qualitative mulberry foliage that can adapt to different climatic conditions. The present paper aims to know the feeding efficiency of V instar silkworm (PM×CSR2) to find out the quantity of leaf required to produce the silk furthermore, conversion rate of ingested food by the silkworm, so that we can analyse the distribution rate of mulberry intake in silkworm for various factors like growth rate, silk production and fecal matter. The study revealed that Food consumption was significantly different only at the end of fifth instar namely on day 5 to day 7. However, Consumption index was significantly different on day 2, whereas efficiency of conversion of ingested food (ECI) and efficiency of conversion of digested food (ECD) were significantly different on day 7 and approximate digestibility (AD) and reference ratio (RR) were significantly different on day 4. Performance of silkworms fed with transgenic mulberry leaves with respect to food consumption and its utilization for growth reveals that these transgenic mulberry lines were effectively utilized by the silkworm as was V1.