From farm management to bacteriophage therapy: strategies to reduce antibiotic use in animal agriculture

Abstract

To reduce the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture, a number of effective or commercially viable alternatives have been implemented by food animal producers or are under development. Perhaps the most well‐established strategies are flock and herd management practices to mitigate disease introduction and spread, and, subsequently, reduce the need for antibiotic use. While vaccines in food animal production have been used to prevent both bacterial and viral diseases, but historically, most vaccines have targeted viral diseases. Though vaccines against viral diseases can help reduce the need for antibiotic use by controlling the spread of secondary bacterial infections, more recent vaccines under development specifically target bacteria. New developments in selecting and potentially tailoring bacteriophages provide a promising avenue for controlling pathogenic bacteria without the need for traditional small‐molecule antibiotics. In this article we discuss these established and emerging strategies, which are anticipated to reduce the reliance on antibiotics in food animal production and should reduce the prevalence and transmission to humans of antimicrobial resistant bacteria from these systems.

Bacteriophage-Derived Endolysins Applied as Potent Biocontrol Agents to Enhance Food Safety

“…Specifically, pathogens in raw materials or processed foods, and biofilms produced in surfaces of facilities in food industry can be removed by EAD or full endolysin [17]. Moreover, pathogens in food handlers and farmers can also be controlled by EAD or full endolysin [29]. Pathogen detection has mainly been done by the cell wall binding domain (CBD) [16].…”

The concept of using bacteriophages to improve the microbiological quality of minimally processed foods

“…The assembly of phage particles proceeds in an infected cell, whereas their release is due to the enzymatic reaction which disrupts the continuity of a host cell wall. The newly synthesized phages released to the environment are capable of infecting other bacterial cells (Anany et al, 2015;Kazi and Annapure, 2015;Kahn et al, 2019).…”

“…Most of the commercial phage preparations exhibit a significant efficacy in reducing the bacteria in the food environment. Ten of them have received temporary GRAS status, granted by the FDA (Kahn et al, 2019). The EFSA report, prepared in 2016, provides results of the assessment of the safety and effectiveness of Listex TM P100 preparation in reducing pathogens in various ready-to-eat products.…”

“…Bacteriophages may mediate in the transfer of antibiotic resistance genes between bacterial strains, though they are not used in practice (Boyd et al, 2001;Gutiérrez et al, 2016). Risk of the development of resistance to bacteriophage infection by bacteria may be effectively minimized by developing a mixture of a few phages which exhibit a wide spectrum of activities (Kahn et al, 2019;Svircev et al, 2018). Another factor which diminishes the efficacy of the therapy is the immunogenicity of bacteriophages.…”

Antimicrobial resistance in a One Health context: exploring complexities, seeking solutions, and communicating risks

“…Kahn et al . describe a subset of promising solutions that span the realm from farm management strategies to bacteriophage therapy . Recognized experts in a multitude of areas have contributed to these explorations, culminating in a broad set of approaches that can both reduce the need for antibiotics in food animal production and replace the needs that remain with alternatives to treat, control, and prevent bacterial infectious diseases of livestock, companion animals, and humans in the near future.…”