review · Frontiers in Microbiology
Rising antibiotic resistance among bacterial pathogens threatens public health and causes significant economic losses. Bacteriophages offer an alternative to conventional antibiotics in the poultry industry due to their high specificity in targeting particular bacterial pathogens within infected animals. To tackle complex conditions involving multiple clinical strains, tailored cocktails of diverse bacteriophages can be formulated to broaden antibacterial activity. Beyond treating live animals, bacteriophages can also serve under industrial conditions as safe disinfectants to lower bacterial contamination on food-contact surfaces and poultry carcasses. However, bacteriophage therapies are currently not developed sufficiently for widespread commercial adoption. Significant technical barriers regarding bacterial resistance, safety, target specificity, and long-term stability must be addressed to enable effective practical deployment.
Widespread antibiotic resistance among bacterial pathogens creates severe economic losses in food production and poses a major threat to public health. Exploring bacteriophages as targeted treatments and biological disinfectants provides a possible route to protect poultry and food-processing environments without relying on conventional antibiotics, though substantial safety and stability barriers must be addressed first.
The findings point to applications for poultry farmers and poultry processing facilities seeking alternatives to antibiotics and chemical sanitisers. Identified use cases include animal treatments and surface or carcass disinfection. However, solutions appear to be in early-stage research and not yet ready for widespread market rollout, as essential hurdles surrounding pathogen resistance, formulation safety, target specificity, and long-term product stability must still be solved.
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. Their pathogenicity together with the widespread of these bacteria, contributes to many economic losses and poses a threat to public health. With the increasing prevalence of bacterial pathogens being resistant to most conventional antibiotics, scientists have rekindled interest in using bacteriophages as antimicrobial agents. Bacteriophage treatments have also been investigated as an alternative to antibiotics in the poultry industry. Bacteriophages' high specificity may allow them only to target a specific bacterial pathogen in the infected animal. However, a tailor-made sophisticated cocktail of different bacteriophages could broaden their antibacterial activity in typical situations with multiple clinical strains infections. Bacteriophages may not only be used in terms of reducing bacterial contamination in animals but also, under industrial conditions, they can be used as safe disinfectants to reduce contamination on food-contact surfaces or poultry carcasses. Nevertheless, bacteriophage therapies have not been developed sufficiently for widespread use. Problems with resistance, safety, specificity, and long-term stability must be addressed in particular. This review highlights the benefits, challenges, and current limitations of bacteriophage applications in the poultry industry.
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DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1136638
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