Role of antibiotics on silkworm growth and disease management

Insect resources are vast and diverse due to their massive diversity. The exploitation and utilization of insect resources is classified into different categories. The most important among them are the insects of industrial resources which include the utilization of silkworm, honeybee, lac insect and dye insect. Although there are several stages of sericulture from soil to silk, one of the important stages is the technology of feeding of the silkworm. In recent years some antimicrobial agents have been used in sericulture industry as a diet supplement for controlling of silkworm diseases and to improve the production of silk. The antibiotic feed supplementation not only prevents infections caused by pathogens but also enhanced economic parameters in silkworm, Bombyx mori. Antibiotics administration showed promising results in harvesting better crop and controlling the silkworm diseases to a significant level. The bond between antibiotics and silkworm is further strengthened by the current use of silkworm in drug screening and pathogen studies system due to its short larval duration and ethically acceptable model.