Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC)
Silkworm, Bombyx mori, has passive immunity and can be infected by pathogenic bacteria. Therefore, it can be used as a robust bacterial infection model for screening of pathogenic isolates from various sources. In this work, 11 environmental, clinical and veterinary isolates were screened for pathogenicity using silkworm larvae by injecting bacterial suspension through their dorsal surface and observing response. Experimental conditions were established by using Bacillus thuringiensis SW_R_F_1, Escherichia coli O157:H7, E. coli DH5α and 0.6% saline. Nine out of 11 isolates were detected pathogenic after screening. The biochemical and genomic analysis of the nine test isolates confirmed their pathogenicity.