Nosema bombycis

{{Short description|Species of microsporidian}}

{{Speciesbox

| genus = Nosema

| species = bombycis

| authority = Nägeli, 1857

}}

Nosema bombycisSo named by K.W. Nägeli, "Ueber die neue krankheit der Seidenraupe und verwandte organismen", Botanische Zeitung, 1857; 15:760-761. is a species of Microsporidia of the genus Nosema infecting silkworms, responsible for pébrine.

This species was the first microsporidium described, when pebrine decimated silkworms in farms in the mid-19th century. This description was made by Carl Nägeli. Louis Pasteur, taking up an idea of Osimo which had not been successful,Pasteur mentions Osimo's ideas in Louis Pasteur, Studies on silkworm disease; Œuvres complètes, t. 4, p. 38-39, [https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k73599/f57.table online]. Summarizing a development by the Pasteurian Émile Duclaux (Émile Duclaux, Pasteur, histoire d'un esprit, Sceaux, 1896, p. 198, [https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k764468/f203.notice online]), P. Debré writes that Pasteur was "led to propose a seed sorting method almost identical to that recommended a few years earlier by Orcino [read: Osimo]. If the latter had failed, asserts Pasteur, it was through a lack of confidence; which, of course, is not his case." P. Debré, Louis Pasteur, Flammarion, 1994, p. 210. showed breeders a practical way to select uninfected individuals to recreate new healthy farms.