Phagovet

Bacteriophages in the poultry industry

Consumers are driving the demand for meat raised without routine use of antibiotics, with some of the major food chains adopting “antibiotic-free” policies for their meat supplies. Being poultry production one of the worldwide sectors which uses more antibiotics and foodborne bacterial pathogens considered as the leading bacterial causes of human diseases. The pressure to come up with alternatives to fight this bacterial pathogen as gone up like never before.

 In the era of the increasing emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria and a lack of new effective antibiotics. Bacteriophages offer an alternative strategy to antibiotics for poultry, and thus for food safety and public health. On the pictures bellow we can see, what are the possible phage applications in poultry farming, processing, and production:

Source: Żbikowska, Katarzyna & Michalczuk, Monika & Dolka, Beata. (2020). The Use of Bacteriophages in the Poultry Industry. Animals. 10. 10.3390/ani10050872.

Although there is some disbelief in bacteriophages application in the poultry industry, many studies indicated their efficacy and considered them to be a useful alternative to antibiotics in the age of multidrug resistance and in the growing tendency to moving towards the post-antibiotic era.

Phagovet proposes to take part on this process with the development of  a cost-effective solution for controlling Salmonella production. Satisfying market demand for a more secure and reliable solution to control Salmonella infections in poultry farms. Providing a promising effective control measure for a concerning problem for poultry farmers and for human health

Sources:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12985-019-1260-3

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341464091_The_Use_of_Bacteriophages_in_the_Poultry_Industry

Bacteriophages, or phages for short, are viruses that infect bacteria. In the poultry industry, they have been explored as a potential alternative to traditional antibiotics for controlling bacterial infections in birds.

Phages are highly specific in their targeting of bacteria, meaning that they only infect and kill certain types of bacteria, making them less likely to disrupt the overall balance of the microbial community in the poultry. In addition, phages are not harmful to humans or animals, making them a potentially safer option for use in the food industry.

One potential drawback of using phages in the poultry industry is the need for frequent application, as the viruses can only reproduce within their bacterial hosts and may not persist in the environment for long periods of time. However, research is ongoing to develop methods for the long-term stability and storage of phages, which could overcome this limitation.