Efficacy of Salmonella Bacteriophage S1 Delivered and Released by Alginate Beads in a Chicken Model of Infection

Abstract

Modern bacteriophage encapsulation methods based on polymers such as alginate have been developed recently for their use in phage therapy for veterinary purposes. In birds, it has been proven that using this delivery system allows the release of the bacteriophage in the small intestine, the site of infection by Salmonella spp. This work designed an approach for phage therapy using encapsulation by ionotropic gelation of the lytic bacteriophage S1 for Salmonella enterica in 2% w/v alginate beads using 2% w/v calcium chloride as crosslinking agent. This formulation resulted in beads with an average size of 3.73 ± 0.04 mm and an encapsulation efficiency of 70%. In vitro, the beads protected the bacteriophages from pH 3 and released them at higher pH. To confirm that this would protect the bacteriophages from gastrointestinal pH changes, we tested the phage infectivity in vivo assay. Using a model chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) infected with Salmonella Enteritidis, we confirmed that after 3 h of the beads delivery, infective phages were present in the chicken’s duodenal and caecal sections. This study demonstrates that our phage formulation is an effective system for release and delivery of bacteriophage S1 against Salmonella Enteritidis with potential use in the poultry sector.

Antibiofilm activity of a lytic Salmonella phage on different Salmonella enterica serovars isolated from broiler farms

“…Albany . Gomez-Garcia et al ( 2021 ) showed that Salmonella phage S1 showed high EOP on S. Pullorum, S . Gallinarum, and S .…”

Phages and engineered lysins as an effective tool to combat Gram‐negative foodborne pathogens

“…focus on the use of phages in various food matrices, that is, raw and ground poultry meat (Duc et al, 2018;Grant et al, 2017), milk (Huang et al, 2018;Islam et al, 2020b), juices, lettuce (Islam et al, 2019), eggs (Sonalika et al, 2020), iceberg lettuce and cucumber (Bai et al, 2019a), and the elimination of biofilms formed on surfaces in food processing plants (Islam et al, 2019;Islam et al, 2020a). The latest reports also indicate phage improvement strategies in terms of increasing their survival in the digestive tract of animals and under food processing conditions (Gomez-Garcia et al, 2021). In the context of specific food matrices, Huang et al (2018) searched for highly effective phages against S. Typhimurium in milk, sausage, and lettuce.…”

“…Several approaches are used to protect phages from the undesirable effects of many food ingredients, such as organic acids, fatty acids, tannins, or the low pH of the gastrointestinal tract of animals (Xu 2021a). In the study of Gomez-Garcia et al (2021), encapsulation (ionotropic gelation, alginate beads, calcium chloride, and bacteriophage S1 against S. enterica) was used as a novel approach to phage delivery in an in vivo chicken model. The aim of encapsulation was to protect the phage against the low pH of the stomach and to release it at a higher pH.…”

“…In the study of Gomez‐Garcia et al. (2021), encapsulation (ionotropic gelation, alginate beads, calcium chloride, and bacteriophage S1 against S. enterica ) was used as a novel approach to phage delivery in an in vivo chicken model. The aim of encapsulation was to protect the phage against the low pH of the stomach and to release it at a higher pH.…”

Isolation, characterization, and genome analysis of vB_SenS_TUMS_E19, a polyvalent bacteriophage against Salmonella enteritidis

“…Traditionally, antibiotics are used to prevent and treat Salmonella infections, however, the preventive administration of antibiotics can lead to the emergence of multidrug resistance that has become a major global health concern, affecting the food chain, too (Galie et al, 2018, Jajere, 2019, Li et al, 2020, Vikram et al, 2020, Gomez-Garcia et al, 2021, Kuźmińska-Bajor et al, 2021. On the other hand, in line with the so-called "one health" approach, prevention of contamination and supply of safe food are top-priority issues to controlling and curbing the prevalence of foodborne pathogens (Vikram et al, 2020).…”