A viral disease affecting silkworms, caused by a virus that turns their bodies white or pale; a serious threat to silk production.
From French 'grasserie' (from 'grasser,' to be seized by spasm); named for the symptoms of paralysis and loss of color in infected silkworms.
Silkworm diseases were so economically important that they got special scientific names—Pasteur's research on grasserie helped him develop germ theory, meaning a caterpillar disease changed medicine forever.
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