Bacteriophage application for biocontrolling in contaminated foods.

Shigellosis (bacillary dysentery) is an acute enteric infection caused by members of genus. It causes annual deaths of approximately five million children in developing countries. Among spp., causes more serious forms of dysentery than other species. Due to the appearance of multidrug-resistant strains of spp., it is necessary to find alternative antimicrobial agents. The aims of this study were the isolation of a novel species-specific phage against and to evaluate its potential and efficacy for biocontrolling of in foods. PTCC 1234 was used as the host strain for bacteriophage isolation from waste water. A lytic phage of the family was isolated and designated as vB_SflS-ISF001. The phage activity remained at high levels after 1 h of incubation at - 20 to 50 °C and was fairly stable for 1 h at pH values ranging from 7 to 9. The latent period and burst size were approximately 20 min and 53 ± 4 phages per host cell, respectively. Raw and cooked chicken breast were inoculated with a predetermined amount of and subjected to biocontrol test. The results showed that using vB_SflS-ISF001 phage led to more than two logs reduction in the count of viable . It was demonstrated that using vB_SflS-ISF001 phage is of high potential for developing an alternative strategy against contamination in foodstuffs.