Abstract

BACTERIOPHAGES AS A BIOCONTROL AGENT AGAINST FOOD BORNE PATHOGENS

Shilpa P. Tambe* , Mansura S. Mulani, Sagar Kulkarni, Anarkali Sayyad

Abstract

Bacteriophages are obligate intracellular parasites and rely on the hostbacteria for their replication and reproduction. Recently, foodindustries are continuously challenged with microbial contamination offood even if modern technologies are used. Chemical compounds andphysical processes used to reduce microbial contamination of foodmay affect natural properties of food. To overcome these problems,new methods need to be developed. Bacteriophages can be applied asbiocontrol agents in food safety. In this study we have isolated threebacterial strains from poultry farm. The bacterial strains are identifiedtill genus level based on biochemical characters and they may belongto Escherichia, Enterococcus and Serratia species. Isolate 2 and 3were identified till species level by 16srRNA technique.Bacteriophages against each of these specific bacteria were isolated by membrane filtration(0.2μ) and chloroform treatment. Titre for phage against Isolate1, Isolate 2 and Isolate 3were determined to be 1.75×106, 7.32×106, 1.48×106 pfu/ml respectively. One step growthcurve of all phages was done. FE-SEM of phage against Isolate 2 and Isolate 3 was done.Application of phages was done on sample whose TVC was found to be 5.2×108 cfu/ml,which after treatment with cocktail of phages for 3,6 and 9 hours significant reduction wasobserved and found to be 4.4×106, 8.2×104 and 2.3×103 cfu/ml respectively.

Keywords: Bacteriophages, biocontrol, food contaminants, FE-SEM.