Characterization and testing of newly isolated lytic bacteriophages for the biocontrol of .

Two lytic phages were isolated using DSM19880 as host and fully characterized. Phages were characterized physicochemically, biologically and genomically. Host range analysis revealed that the phages also infect some multidrug-resistant (MDR) clinical isolates. Increasing MOI from 1 to 1000 significantly increased phage efficiency and retarded bacteria regrowth, but phage ph0034 (reduction of 7.5 log CFU/ml) was more effective than phage ph0031 (reduction of 5.1 log CFU/ml) after 24 h. Both phages belong to Myoviridae family. Genome sequencing of phages ph0031 and ph0034 showed that they do not carry toxin, virulence, antibiotic resistance and integrase genes. The results obtained are highly relevant in the actual context of bacterial resistance to antibiotics.