Bacteriophage biocontrol: food and environmental applications

Bacteriophages are viruses whose hosts are bacteria. The bactericidal nature of virulent bacteriophage has been exploited by researchers for decades hoping to utilise these viruses in the fight against bacterial infections and antibiotic resistant bacteria in clinical settings. More recently, the potential applications of bacteriophage biocontrol in the food, agriculture and aquaculture industries have been investigated by researchers attempting to develop ‘natural’ antimicrobial products. Bacteriophages have many advantages over conventional methods of controlling pathogenic bacteria, such as high host specificity, the ability to self-perpetuate, and the ability to evolve with their hosts to overcome some problems of resistance to the treatment. However, more research is necessary to optimise the parameters for treatment, including temperature, pH, exposure to UV, multiplicity of infection, mode of potential candidate for bacteriophage biocontrol must be genetically sequenced to ensure that it is unable to confer any virulence to the host. Bacteriophages have also been investigated for use as bacterial indicators of the microbiological quality of water, as well as in rapid arrays for the detection of pathogens in foods.