Milk as a dietary supplement in the development of the silkworm bombyx mori l.

In this research, cow's milk was used as a growth promoter to increase the size of silkworm (Bombyx mori L.) cocoons and pupae. The experiment was conducted at the Entomology Laboratory of the Francisco I. Madero Polytechnic University, located in Tepatepec, Hidalgo, Mexico. Nine different commercial brands of milk were evaluated. The experimental design was completely randomized with ten treatments and ten replicates. The variables evaluated were pupa weight and cocoon weight. Fifth-instar larvae were fed three times a day by immersing mulberry leaves in each commercial milk treatment for approximately five minutes. The results were analyzed using the SAS statistical software, and the averages were analyzed using Tukey's test. We concluded that the best results were obtained with supplementation using Lala, Fortileche, and Nutrileche milk, with a statistically significant difference. We suggest that during the winter season it is recommended to feed silkworms with these milks to obtain good quality cocoons and pupae.