Septicaemia of subterranean termites Coptotermes curvignathus caused by disturbance of bacteria isolated from termite gut and its foraging pathways

Microbial pathogens continue to attract a great deal of attention to manage the termite population. Every bacterium has its own mode of action and in fact, the mechanisms used by bacteria to attack termites remain elusive at the moment. Hence, the objective of this study was to evaluate the susceptibility of subterranean termites to opportunistic pathogens using culturable aerobic bacteria isolated from the termite gut and its foraging pathways. Bacterial suspensions were prepared in concentrations of 10 , 10 and 10 colony-forming units (CFU) ml and introduced to the termites via oral-contact and physical contact treatment. The data show that contact method acted slower and gave lower mortality, compared to the oral-contact method. were highly susceptible to . showed the highest mortality percentage of 68% and 54% at bacterial concentration of 10 CFU ml via oral-contact and contact method, respectively. was also defined as the bacteria with the highest ability to induce the high mortality of with the lowest concentration of bacterial suspension at a given time under laboratory condition. The results of this study indicate that and in particular may be attractive candidates worth further examination as a possible biocontrol agent against in the field and to evaluate environmental and ecological risks of the biocontrol.