Artificial feed instead of mulberry leaves for silkworms has been developed in China

Introduction: in people's impression, silkworms can't live without mulberry leaves just like fish can't live without water However, a kind of artificial feed developed recently by Southwest Agricultural University, which can replace mulberry leaves, has lost this inevitable connection between silkworm and mulberry According to Professor Wu Dayang, director of China silk society and vice president of silk College of Southwest Agricultural University, the feed is made of bean cake, bean dregs, starch, sugar, cellulose, vitamins and other raw materials in a certain proportion according to the main nutrients of mulberry leaves Experiments show that the silkworms fed on this artificial feed are the same as those fed on mulberry leaves from development, growth to silk spinning The color of silk that it spits out is whiter than that of silkworms that eat mulberry leaves The yield and quality of silk are no different from that of normal silkworms This research achievement of Southwest Agricultural University has been put into actual production in Mianyang City, Sichuan Province According to reports, this year, the number of silkworm rearing with feed in Mianyang City has reached more than 1200, involving nearly 1000 farmers As the low-cost production has not been completely solved, this kind of feed is currently mainly used in the period of "small insects" with small food consumption China is the largest silk producer in the world, accounting for more than 80% of the world's total silk production China's silk industry is mainly concentrated in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Shandong, Chongqing, Anhui and other provinces and cities Due to the limitation of mulberry leaf supply and demand, the annual feeding period is only half a year Using artificial feed to raise silkworms can make the production of silk industry not limited by seasons, save mulberry land and reduce labor cost According to Professor Wu Dayang, 12 to 13 days after the eggs are laid, they are called "small worms", which are the period of fast growth, low food consumption, poor disease resistance and the most difficult to feed However, the survival rate and robustness of the "little insects" fed with artificial feed are much higher than those fed on mulberry leaves Wu predicted that the silk industry will usher in a new round of great development with the continuous reduction of artificial feed costs and the successful cultivation of broad-based silkworms.