Bacteriophage therapy for management of bacterial infections in veterinary practice: what was once old is new again

Abstract

Bacteriophages (or phages) are naturally-occurring viruses that can infect and kill bacteria. They are remarkably diverse, numerous and widespread. Each phage has a narrow host range yet a large majority of bacteria studied so far play host to bacteriophages, hence the remarkable phage diversity. Phages were discovered just over 100 years ago and they have been used for treatment of bacterial infections in humans and other animals since the 1920s. They have also been studied intensively and this has led to, and continues to lead to, major insights in the fields of molecular biology and recombinant DNA technology, including that DNA is the genetic material, nucleotides are arranged in triplets to make codons, and messenger RNA is needed for protein synthesis. This article begins with a description of bacteriophages and explains why there has recently been a strong resurgence of interest in their clinical use for treatment of bacterial infections, particularly those caused by organisms resistant to multiple antimicrobial compounds. The history of bacteriophage therapy is briefly reviewed, followed by a review and critique of promising but very limited clinical research on the use of bacteriophages to treat bacterial infections in dogs. Other potential veterinary uses and benefits of bacteriophage therapy are also briefly discussed. There are important practical challenges that will have to be overcome before widespread implementation and commercialisation of bacteriophage therapy can be achieved, which are also considered.

The Complex Diseases of Staphylococcus pseudintermedius in Canines: Where to Next?

“…Therefore, further work is required to determine if the lytic activity of lytic S. aureus phages is sufficient enough to exploit their use in treating S. pseudintermedius canine infections. While phage therapy research has expanded, there are few clinical trials of phage therapy in companion animals, and as reviewed by Squires, there are numerous potential limitations that must be addressed to expand the use of phages as therapeutics [131]. In the context of canine pyoderma, it is important to understand the phage-resistant mechanisms and how this may impact the treatment of chronic or recurrent infections.…”

Phage Therapy in Livestock and Companion Animals

“…However, World War II and the discovery of antibiotics led to the abandonment of phages as a therapeutic tool in Western countries [ 25 ]. Nowadays, due to the emergence of MDR bacteria, phage therapy has re-emerged and is considered a potential therapeutic alternative to antibiotics [ 21 , 26 ].…”

Role of orf73 in the development of lambdoid bacteriophages during infection of the Escherichia coli host

“…water, air, soil or waste water) and are considered the most abundant organisms on Earth (Clokie et al, 2011;Weitz et al, 2012). Interestingly, these bacterial killers, due to their specificity, have many potential applications not only in the fields of genetic and molecular biology (Węgrzyn & Węgrzyn, 2005;Kirsch & Comeau, 2008;Kutter and et al, 2015), but also in such areas as human therapy (Górski et al, 2018), veterinary (Squires, 2018), agriculture or food and industry control (Gutierrez et al, 2016;Svircev et al, 2018;Zachary et al, 2018). However, bacteriophages also have "the dark side".…”