Competency in Mother Moth Examination Methods of Antheraea mylitta D. in the Detection of Pebrine Spores and Quality Evaluation

Pebrine disease in tasar silkworm is considered to be most serious because of its chronic pathogenicity. Prophylactic method of mother moth examination proves to be the foolproof technique for pebrine identification. So, the study was conducted to investigate pebrine spores detection competency and evaluation of their quality in exhisting mother moth examinations. Four existing mother moth examination methods namely Prick and See, Conventional, Fuziwara and Delayed Mother Moth Examination (DMME) by Fuziwara were selected for the study. The maximum pebrine and hatching percentages were noticed in 4 days DMME with 23.2 and 93.1%, respectively. While, minimum values were observed in prick and see with 4.3% and 84.3, respectively. No significant variations in Cocoon weight, Shell weight and S.R% was observed in cocoons obtained from the different mother moth testing methods. Least percentage of effective rate of rearing (ERR) was observed in Prick and See method (58.75%) followed by Conventional method (61.25%) and Fuziwara (63.15%). High percentage of ERR was observed in DMME which ranged from 64.53% (1st day after egg laying) to 67.28% (4th day after egg laying). Least percentage of improvement of ERR% over Prick and See was observed in Conventional (2.50%) followed by Fuziwara (4.40%). High percentage of ERR over Prick and See was observed in DMME which ranged from 5.78% (1st day) to 8.53% (4th day). Consequently, among the tested mother moth examinations, DMME by Fuziwara after delaying four days from the egg laying has given best results. This method can be implemented in the research institutions for the maintenance of germplasm and breeders stock.