Effects of Temperature and Density on House Cricket Survival and Growth and on the Prevalence of Acheta Domesticus Densovirus

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The house cricket, Acheta domesticus, is a commonly reared insect for food and feed purposes. In 1977, a report described a colony collapse, which was caused by the single-stranded DNA virus Acheta domesticus densovirus (AdDV). Currently, there are no confirmed A. domesticus colonies free of AdDV, and viral disease outbreaks are a continuous threat to A. domesticus mass rearing. Correlations between cricket rearing density or temperature and AdDV abundance have been hypothesized, but experimental evidence is lacking. Optimised rearing conditions, including temperature and density, are key to cost-effective cricket production. In this study, house crickets were subjected to different combinations of rearing density (10, 20, 40 crickets per box) and temperature (25, 30, 35 °C) to study the effect on cricket survival, biomass, and AdDV abundance. Rearing temperature affected had a minor effect on survival, which ranged between 80 and 83%. Total cricket biomass increased with higher temperatures and higher densities. Viral abundance in crickets at the end of the rearing period was variable; however, high rearing density seemed to result in higher AdDV abundance. At 35 °C, a temperature considered suboptimal for house cricket production, viral abundance tended to be lower than at 25 or 30 °C.

Original languageEnglish
Article number588
JournalInsects
Volume14
Issue number7
Number of pages13
ISSN2075-4450
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.

    Research areas

  • Acheta domesticus, cricket viruses, entomopathogenic viruses, house cricket, insect production, insects as food and feed, mass rearing

ID: 361589423