Does feeding of silkworm Bombyx mori on supplementing vitamin C under thermal stress affect its performance?

The influence of oral supplementation of ascorbic acid to the fifth instar bivoltine silkworm larvae under thermal stress was studied. Dietary supplementation of ascorbic acid (.2%) to silkworm larvae through 1 st to 5 th instar was done to evaluate the physiological traits like the rate of consumption and utilization of food, the rate of digestibility, coefficient of utilization, and growth rate of larva, and quality parameters of cocoon were studied. The observations were analyzed by using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Duncan’s multiple range test (DMRT). In the present study, it has been observed that the feed efficacy and growth rate of silkworm larvae, enhanced by the supplementation of vitamin C. compared to the control and heat shock exposed groups. The results suggest that ascorbic acid potentiates the antioxidant activity to withstand thermal stress and supplementation of vitamin C may enhance the feeding efficiency of the larvae and inturn produce quality cocoons.