University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore

Mulberry (Morus spp.) the sole food plant of silkworm (Bombyx mori L.) is grown under a wide range of ecological conditions in many countries of both temperate and tropical regions. Being perennial in nature, it is often affected by a large number of diseases caused by various groups of pathogens of bacterials, funal, mycoplasmal, nemadoe and viral origins. The diseases cause considerable amount of leaf loss both quantitatively and qualitatively. In mayn cases, the silkworm consumes the diseased leaves or the leaves of the diseased plants without processing. There is, thus, a high cost penalty for any increase of disease damage to the plants and a comprehensive knowledge on the diseases is felt need by the sericultural people to manage the diseases effectively in mulberry garden. A number of reviews, hand book and bulletins have been appeared to describe them in certain specific lines or a part in concise manner as one or two book chapters. However, these are inadequate to reflect mulberry diseases properly in order to enrich the knowledfe of sericultural students, worker and researchers about them. This book, therefore, provides the details of parasitic diseases of mulberry based on the research progress, so far, achieved in India and abroad. In addition, different groups of pathogens, their interaction with the host, disease forecasting system and fungicides are described in brief for ready reference in disease and pathogen dealings.