Standardization of mother moth examination for pebrine detection in samia species and diagnosis of pebrine disease in commercial seed production

The Eri silkworm of the genus Samia is infected by protozoan disease pebrine caused by microsporidian Nosema species. The disease is transmitted to the next generation either through the eggs or consumption of contaminated leaves and it hinder eri seed production. So to prevent this disease strict mother moth examination is a must. Presently for diagnosis of pebrine disease, the mass mother moth examination of eri silk moth includes random selection of eri silk moths after laying the eggs followed by grinding, filtering, centrifuging and finally examination under microscope in 600 x magnification following the same procedure practising in Antheraea assama/Bombyx mori.As the size of Bombyx mori female mother moth is about 1cm to 1.5cm., the size of the Antheraea assama female mother moth is about 3.5cm to 4 cm and that of Samia species is about 2.5cm to 2.8 cm. So, considering the size of the mother moth of Samia species and as per Research Committee suggestion to standardize the existing technology the new procedure evolved. The experiment has been conducted three times with slight alteration, addition, deletion, refinement of the existing procedure and finally fine tuning it as per requirement.