ABSTRACT
This chapter covers the various pathogens generally encountered in insect rearing and addresses some of the approaches that one can take in preventing problems and dealing with them should they arise. The development of insect diets has substantially reduced the incidence of certain diseases in insect rearing. Insects are infected by a diverse group of microorganisms that include viruses, bacteria, rickettsia, fungi, protozoans, and microsporidians. The microsporidia are the most important of the protozoan pathogens of insects and the most likely protozoans to be encountered in insect rearing. A key method for reducing contamination of insect diet with pathogens or microbial contaminants is to infest with eggs or larvae that are free of contamination. Without egg sterilization, the levels of diet contamination with bacteria and/or fungi can be extremely high, even with the use of antimicrobial compounds in the diet. For this reason, most insectanes using artificial diet routinely surface sterilize eggs.
