Pébrine's disease

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The Pébrine disease (also nosemosis , blotchiness ) is a parasitic disease of the silk moth ( Bombyx mori ), which is caused by Nosema bombycis . Nosema bombycis is a unicellular parasite from the department of microsporidia ( Microsporidia ), which are small spore animals that are usually counted among the fungi . Infected silkworms ( larvae of the silk moth) are usually covered with black-brown spots and are unable to produce silk and pupate. The French microbiologist Louis Pasteur was the first to recognize the Nosema infestation as the cause of the disease, which still plays a role in the breeding of silkworms to this day .

The animal epidemic spread so rapidly in France in the middle of the 19th century that the economically very important silk industry in the south of France was apparently on the brink of collapse (so-called "Pébrine crisis"). First, the production by importing the equally usable attempt was made silk delivered ailanthus moth ( Philosamia cynthia ) maintain that in this way for Europe arrived.

From 1865 Pasteur dealt intensively with the disease and he succeeded in proving that the epidemic was caused by pathogenic microorganisms ( protozoa ). In experiments he discovered that the disease is not only highly contagious, but is also passed on to their brood when the infected mother moths lay eggs (as we know today, through spores ) . In his research, published in 1870, he concluded that the disease could only spread through infected eggs and that the solution would be to use only uninfected eggs for growing healthy cultures. This method saved French sericulture, and Pasteur's research methodology represented a significant advance in pathogen research.

literature

  • Pasteur Valléry-Radot (ed.): Œuvres de Pasteur . Volume 4: Études sur la maladie des vers à soie . Masson, Paris 1926, pp. 54-186. (gallica.bnf.fr)
  • Chavannes: On the disease of the silk moth and the upbringing of a healthy brood. In: Berlin entomological journal. Volume 5, 1861, pp. 175ff.
  • Nicola Williams, Miles Roddis: Languedoc-Roussillon. MairDumont, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-8297-1650-5 , p. 106.