Influence of abiotic factors in the culture of the cochineal (Dactylopius coccus Costa)
Creators: name: Zacarías Alvarado, José Rodolfo
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: subject: Carminic acid
subject: Breeding
subject: Dactylopius coccus
subject: Carmine acid concentration
subject: Cochineal
subject: Opuntia cladodes
subject: Productive behavior
subject: Opuntia repository
subject: Fresh weight
subject: Greenhouse conditions
subject: Abiotic factors
subject: Nutritional status
subject: Culture
subject: Species
subject: Age
subject: Stage of development
subject: Mexico
subject: IMRN
subject: http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_33685
subject: http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_5373

description: <em>Dactylopius coccus </em>Costa is a species of economic importance due to the carminic acid contained in its body, which is used in many biomedical and textile industries. Therefore, the price of <em>D. coccus </em>varies depending on the carmine acid concentration (CAC) it contains. However, its content is influenced by factors such as: opuntia species or variety, age and nutritional status of the host, stage of development in which the female is collected, temperature, relative humidity, light incidence, season of the year in which the cochineal slaughter and drying method is raised, as well as the method used to quantify the CAC. Therefore, the objectives of the study were: To compare three quantification methods and to select the one that quantified the highest CAC, as well as to determine the productive behavior of<em> D. coccus </em>according to the CAC (%) and fresh weight (FW), in an opuntia repository (nopaloteca) in two breeding stations. For the first stage, three methods commonly used in Mexico for carminic acid quantification were assessed. A homogeneous cochineal sample was used for assessing. As a result of this assessment, the most efficient method was selected and used in the second stage of this research, with some modifications to improve its robustness. In the second stage of the study, a nopaloteca of wood was established under greenhouse conditions with four levels of height (0.5 m, 1.0 m, 1.5 m and 2.0 m); the females were collected in two stages of development: pre and post-oviposition. A daily record of temperature, relative humidity and light intensity was kept, the study was carried out in two seasons: spring-summer and autumn-winter. The cochineal FW per cladode (g), the CAC (%) obtained at each height level, development phase and breeding season; as well as the CAC obtained from each of the evaluated methods, an analysis of variance was performed using the Tukey test (p ≤0.05) to determine the significant differences in averages and a correlation analysis was done using Pearson's r coefficient. The results showed significant differences among the methods used, since differences of up to 4.6% were recorded. The Briseño-Garzón and Llanderal (2008) method proved to be the most efficient among them. The autumn-winter cycle was more favorable for cochineal <em>D. coccus </em>breeding with a CAC of 18 % and the highest FW (6.1 g per cladode). During the spring-summer rearing a negative correlation was observed between the CAC and the PF. Consistently, the collection of cochineal in postoviposition recorded the highest CAC in both seasons.
description: Thesis. M. Sc. in Innovation in Natural Resources Management, Colegio de Postgraduados, Campus San Luis Potosí, 2019