author(s)
Essawy M. M.1, Saad I. A. I2

abstract
The current studies were carried using two biosalt minerals, potassium sulphate, sodium sulphate and a mixture of both biosalts at concentration of 1,2,4,8 and 16% were added to the mulberry leaves of silkworm B. mori L., to evaluate their effect on the blood volume (BV) and total haemocyte counts (THC). The data revealed that larvae treated with potassium sulphate and biosalt mixture at 1% concentration positively enhanced blood volume to reach its maximum peak at 10th day of feeding period in comparison to the control peak which gained at 9th day. While, Larvae treated with sodium sulphate positively enhanced blood volume during the feeding period from the 4th day until 8th day. Potassium sulphate at concentration of 4% at 5th day of the feeding period increased the total haemocyte counts/mm3 (THC) of larvae up to 23958 cell/mm3 in comparison to 11542 cell/mm3 of control. While, sodium sulphate at 2% increased the THC value up to 25417 cell/mm3 in comparison to 11542 cell/mm3 of control during the 5th day of feeding period. The biosalt mixture at 2% concentration also enhanced the THC during the feeding period, the maximum peak was observed at 7th day. Absolute haemocyte counts (AHC) reached its maximum peak (4990758 cell/larva) at 9th day of larval period for larvae treated with potassium sulphate at concentration of 2% in comparison to (3342625 cell/larva) of control. Larvae treated with sodium sulphate at 1% concentration during 8th and 9th days showed two peaks of AHC (4393750 and 4659375 cell/larva respectively) in comparison to (2145000 and 3342625 cell/larva) of untreated respectively. Larvae treated with a biosalt mixture at 1% concentration positively enhanced the AHC value during the obligatory feeding period, and mature larvae stage.