Abstract
Different types of mountages were tested to determine the comparative reeling and raw silk quality characteristics of cocoons produced using them. The five types of mountage used in the study were the vertical fixed mountage, the shoot rearing rack rotary mountage, the traditional bamboo mountage, the rotary mountage and the plastic collapsible mountage. The results indicated that the highest percentage of defective cocoons was found with the plastic collapsible mountage (16.8%) followed by the conventional bamboo mountage (12.7%), the vertical fixed mountage (7.7%), the shoot rearing rack rotary mountage (5.6%) and the rotary mountage (3.8%). The cocoons harvested from the rotary mountage exhibited the highest quality. The reelability was found to be greater than 85% for all mountage types except for the collapsible plastic mountage (77%). The percentage of raw silk obtained was highest with the rotary mountage (17.4%) and lowest with the plastic collapsible mountage. From the results it can be inferred that under given temperature and humidity conditions, the quality of the raw silk production depends strongly on the mountage used as well as on the silkworm genus being reared. It was observed that the raw silk produced using the plastic collapsible mountage was inferior to that produced with the other mountages used in the study. (*: To whom correspondence should be addressed, Tel +91-80. 26282156, E-mail: shillin_sn@yahoo.co.in)
