Bacteriophage preparation for Treatment and Prevention of Salmonella Infection in Poultry

Abstract

Enteric Salmonella infection is a global problem both in man and animals, and has been attributed to be the most important bacterial etiology for enteric infections worldwide with massive outbreaks occurring in recent years. Food animals are the primary reservoir for human non-typhoid Salmonella infections. Poultry products are considered one of the major sources of Salmonella infections. The development of alternative anti- microbial remedies has become one of the highest priorities of modern medicine and biotechnology. One of such alternatives might be bacteriophages as a prospective biocontrol method against contaminations caused by antimicrobial resistant pathogens. The aim of this study was to develop bacteriophage-based product that can be used to control salmonella contamination on farm level. 31 S. typhimurium strains were isolated from 200 poultry meat and eggs. All of the isolates showed high resistance to antibiotics used in the test. For formulating polyvalent phage preparation 3 phages out of 8 with wide, complementary, not-fully-overlapping host ranges were selected. Lytic activity and host specificity of each individual phage was compared with that of the phage cocktail. It was observed that the cocktail was superior to the individual phages. .Salmonella phage cocktail was effective against 46 out of 45 (98%) tested Salmonella strains in in vitro experiments.