Phage Therapy for Control of Bacterial Diseases

Phage therapy is one of the most important control strategies envisaged for the management of bacterial diseases in the aquatic environment. There are no other effective alternative approaches for the natural control of bacterial diseases, while phage therapy remains the best method which has not yet been exploited. The occurrence, infectivity, lytic activities, therapeutic potentials, and efficacy of the bacteriophages of Bacillus spp./ Vibrio spp. for control of pathogenic bacteria diseases such as Vibrio vulnificus, V. damsela, and V. furnissii in the cultures of crustaceans are presented. An ideal method for long-term storage and recovery of the lytic bacteriophages, agar bioassay method and one-step growth experiments, in vivo and in vitro experiments, and validation of the usefulness of phage therapy are described. The review highlights the occurrences of plagues of lytic phages of Vibrio sp. and Bacillus spp. and their control effects of vibriosis both in vivo and in vitro in the crustaceans, thus establishing the application and efficacy of the phages of Vibrio / Bacillus against the pathogenic Vibrio spp. Development of specific phage therapy or a cocktail of phages to a wide variety of systems is considered to represent an interesting emerging alternative to antibiotic therapy and vaccination.