Silkworms from Bengaluru will soon be reared in the US as pet food for lizards and other reptiles
A US company will be importing silkworm eggs from Bengaluru to grow them as pet food. A professor from the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) is felicitating the initiative and earlier this month helped in selecting the ideal way to farm mulberry plants in Louisiana, US. The silkworms will not be used for producing silk but become feed for exotic pet lizards in the US.
Dr BL Chidananda, an associate professor at the department of animal sciences, visited insect breeder ‘Mulberry Farms’ which are setting up the first silkworm breeding centre in Ringgold, Louisiana. It is the only company in the US to be granted permission by the US department of agriculture to import the silkworm eggs from India.
Speaking to Mirror, Chidananda said, “Mulberry cultivation was in troduced to the US in the late 18th Century. It was cultivated in Louisiana, Florida and California, but it never took off. Now this company that produces pet foodd wants to grow silkworms, especially for pets like lizards and other reptiles. Since silkworms are domesticated they can be reared for pet foodd. However, the problem with the whole thing is the mulberry plant, which is the sole food of silkworms, they do not grow well in the US due to the extreme weather. The company tried to grow mulberry in California but found it very uneconomical.” Chidananda has suggested growing mulberry for silkworms in polyhouses. Chidananda did the needful by studying the weather patterns in the farm at Ringgold, Louisiana.
“I have suggested cultivation of mulberry in poly-houses for six months of the year. It cannot be done in winter. Poly-house cultivation of mulberry will not be economical in India. Unlike India, the mulberry leaves will not be fed fresh to the silkworms. They will be ground into dry powder and used as feed for silkworms later. For six months, the plants will be pruned and capped.This is the way Bengaluru silkworms will be reared in the US very shortly.”
The company is already into insect farming and grows cricket and armyworms.
Silkworm pupae are indirectly and directly consumed by people as well. In some places in India, silkworm feed is replacing fish feed in poultry. Chidananda said, “Littleknown is the fact that pupae are also a delicacy in some parts of India.”
source: http://www.bangaloremirror.com / BangaloreMirror / Home> Bangalore> Others / by Shyam Prasad S , Bangalore Mirror Bureau / November 24th, 2014