Pébrine, or "pepper disease," is a disease of

silkworms The domestic silk moth (''Bombyx mori''), is an insect from the moth family Bombycidae. It is the closest relative of ''Bombyx mandarina'', the wild silk moth. The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of a silk moth. It is an economically imp ...

, which is caused by protozoan

microsporidia Microsporidia are a group of spore-forming unicellular parasites. These spores contain an extrusion apparatus that has a coiled polar tube ending in an anchoring disc at the apical part of the spore. They were once considered protozoans or prot ...

n parasites, mainly ''

Nosema bombycis Nosema bombycis is a species of Microsporidia of the genus '' Nosema'' infecting silkworms, responsible for pébrine. This species was the first microsporidium described, when pebrine decimated silkworms in farms in the mid-19th century. This des ...

'' and, to a lesser extent, ''

Vairimorpha ''Vairimorpha'' is a genus of microsporidian parasites. Species include: * '' Vairimorpha cheracis'' - a parasite of the Australian freshwater crayfish, ''Cherax destructor'' * '' Vairimorpha disparis'' - a parasite of the moth, ''Lymantria di ...

'', '' Pleistophora'' and '' Thelohania'' species. The parasites infect eggs and are therefore transmitted to the next generation. The silkworm larvae infected by pébrine are usually covered in brown dots and are unable to spin silkworm thread.

Antoine Béchamp Pierre Jacques Antoine Béchamp (16 October 1816 – 15 April 1908) was a French scientist now best known for breakthroughs in applied organic chemistry and for a bitter rivalry with Louis Pasteur. Béchamp developed the Béchamp reduction ...

was the first one to recognize the cause of this disease when a

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...

of the disease spread across

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. ''Nosema bombycis'' is a microsporidium that kills all of the silkworms hatched from infected eggs and comes from the food that silkworms eat. If silkworms acquire this microsporidium in their larval stage, there are no visible signs; however, mother moths will pass the microsporidium onto the eggs, and all of the worms hatching from the infected eggs will die in their larval stage. Therefore, it is extremely important to rule out all eggs from infected moths by checking the moth's body fluid under a microscope.

References

*
Pasteur Valléry-Radot (Hrsg.): ''Œuvres de Pasteur''. Band 4: ''Études sur la maladie des vers à soie''. Masson, Paris 1926, S. 54-186.
* Chavannes: ''Ueber die Krankheit des Seidenspinners und die Erziehung einer gesunden Brut desselben''. In: Berliner entomologische Zeitschrift, Band 5, 1861, S. 175ff. * Nicola Williams, Miles Roddis: ''Languedoc-Roussillon''. MairDumont, Ostfildern 2009, S. 106. Diseases of Lepidopterans Sericulture {{parasite-stub

See also

References