Nutritional Effects of Three Mulberry Varieties on Silkworms in Torbat Heydarieh

Abstract

This research was conducted to evaluate and compare the performance of the silkworm hybrid p31×p32 reared with three varieties of mulberry leaves. In this study, the silkworms were fed with leaves from Kenmochi (Morus bombycis), native mulberry (Morus alba L.), and black mulberry (Morus nigra L.) trees and their influence on the leaf ingested, leaf digested, cocoon weight, efficiency of feed consumption to cocoon shell, efficiency of digested feed to cocoon shell weight, efficiency of digested feed to cocoon weight, and efficiency of feed consumption to cocoon weight was studied in the Torbat Heydarieh region. The results showed that silkworms that consumed leaves of Kenmochi had better performance. Also, they had better performance for traits of cocoon shell weight, feed efficiency to cocoon shell weight, and feed efficiency to cocoon weight. Therefore, Kenmochi tree is suggested for development of sericulture in the region.