Agriculture & Forestry, Vol. 62 Issue 1: 241-247, 2016, Podgorica 241 DOI: 10.17707/AgricultForest.62.1.27 Orhan YILMAZ, Y. Erdal ERTURK, Fusun COSKUN, Mehmet ERTUGRUL 1 SERICULTURE IN PROVINCES OF BURSA, AMASYA AND MUGLA (TURKEY) SUMMARY Bursa was the important city where silkworm egg and cocoon were produced; silk and velvet were woven by hand and exported to the Europe in the period of Ottoman Empire. Since silkworm was brought to Anatolia, Bursa sustains its importance in this sector. Sericulture has begun at the same period in Amasya that is one of the Ottoman cities. Silks came from Iran were woven in this city because of being on Iran’s trade route. The fabrics woven in Amasya were preferred by Ottoman Palace and also exported to the other countries. Sericulture and cocoon cultivating were made in Mugla the city has eligible climate condition to cultivate mulberry. Silk was woven by using simple bench as a family work. Bursa became rapidly an industrial city on silk texture because of having raw material by beginning of republic period. Silk texture has subsisted as a traditional Turkish handcraft at Amasya and Mugla. Keywords: Bombyx mori, native breed, genetic resource, Silk Road, cocoon INTRODUCTION Some animal species and breeds had important place in history of some countries such as Merino sheep in Spain, Angora Goat in Turkey and sericulture in China (Ertugrul et al., 2010). Sericulture in the World is generally made in Asian countries. In the World production percentages of China and India are 80% and 15% respectively (Kaya and Tutkun, 2012). The production of fresh cocoon is about 134 in 2012 (Table 1). Silk has some unique characteristics in kinds of fabric. It is shiny, soft, strong, and has a fabric can be dyed. It is so sensitive, therefore it is effected by noise, smell, wind, temperature change, even carers hygiene (Imer, 2005). Generally four kinds of silkworm which are Mulberry, Eri, Tasar and Muga are reared in the World. Mulberry silkworm (Bombyx mori) (Table 2) has the majority in them which percentage is about 95% (Akbay, 1 Orhan Yilmaz, (corresponding author: zileliorhan@gmail.com), Ardahan University, Vocational High School of Technical Sciences, Ardahan, TURKEY, Y. Erdal. Erturk,, Igdir University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Economics, Igdir, TURKEY, Fusun Coskun, Ahi Evran University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Animal Science, Kirsehir, TURKEY, Mehmet Ertugrul, Ankara University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Animal Science, Ankara, TURKEY Paper presented at the 6 th International Scientific Agricultural Symposium "AGROSYM 2015". Notes: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. Authorship Form signed online.