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  3. Identification of a broad-spectrum lytic Myoviridae bacteriophage using multidrug resistant Salmonella isolates from pig slaughterhouses as the indicator and its application in combating Salmonella infections

Identification of a broad-spectrum lytic Myoviridae bacteriophage using multidrug resistant Salmonella isolates from pig slaughterhouses as the indicator and its application in combating Salmonella infections

  • BMC Vet Res. 2022 Jul 12;18(1):270. doi: 10.1186/s12917-022-03372-8.
Mengfei Zhao 1 2,  Rui Xie 1 2,  Shuang Wang 1 2,  Xi Huang 1 2,  Hao Yang 1 2,  Wenqing Wu 1 2,  Lin Lin 1 2,  Hongjian Chen 1 2,  Jie Fan 1 2,  Lin Hua 1 2,  Wan Liang 1 2 3,  Jianmin Zhang 4,  Xiangru Wang 1 2,  Huanchun Chen 1 2,  Zhong Peng 5 6 7,  Bin Wu 8 9
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
  • 2 Key Laboratory of Preventive Veterinary Medicine in Hubei Province, The Cooperative Innovation Centre for Sustainable Pig Production, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
  • 3 Present address: Hubei Jin Xu Agricultural Development Limited by Share Ltd., Wuhan, China.
  • 4 National and Regional Joint Engineering Laboratory for Medicament of Zoonoses Prevention and Control, College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.
  • 5 State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China. [email protected].
  • 6 Key Laboratory of Preventive Veterinary Medicine in Hubei Province, The Cooperative Innovation Centre for Sustainable Pig Production, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China. [email protected].
  • 7 Hubei Hongshan Laboratory, Wuhan, China. [email protected].
  • 8 State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China. [email protected].
  • 9 Key Laboratory of Preventive Veterinary Medicine in Hubei Province, The Cooperative Innovation Centre for Sustainable Pig Production, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China. [email protected].
PMID: 35821025 DOI: 10.1186/s12917-022-03372-8
Abstract

Background: Salmonella is a leading foodborne and zoonotic pathogen, and is widely distributed in different nodes of the pork supply chain. In recent years, the increasing prevalence of antimicrobial resistant Salmonella poses a threat to global public health. The purpose of this study is to the prevalence of antimicrobial resistant Salmonella in pig slaughterhouses in Hubei Province in China, and explore the effect of using lytic bacteriophages fighting against antimicrobial resistant Salmonella.

Results: We collected a total of 1289 samples including anal swabs of pigs (862/1289), environmental swabs (204/1289), carcass surface swabs (36/1289) and environmental agar plates (187/1289) from eleven slaughterhouses in seven cities in Hubei Province and recovered 106 Salmonella isolates. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing revealed that these isolates showed a high rate of antimicrobial resistance; over 99.06% (105/106) of them were multidrug resistant. To combat these drug resistant Salmonella, we isolated 37 lytic phages using 106 isolates as indicator bacteria. One of them, designated ph 2-2, which belonged to the Myoviridae family, displayed good capacity to kill Salmonella under different adverse conditions (exposure to different temperatures, pHs, UV, and/or 75% ethanol) and had a wide lytic spectrum. Evaluation in mouse models showed that ph 2-2 was safe and saved 80% (administrated by gavage) and 100% (administrated through intraperitoneal injection) mice from infections caused by Salmonella Typhimurium.

Conclusions: The data presented herein demonstrated that Salmonella contamination remains a problem in some pig slaughter houses in China and Salmonella isolates recovered in slaughter houses displayed a high rate of antimicrobial resistance. In addition, broad-spectrum lytic bacteriophages may represent a good candidate for the development of anti-antimicrobial resistant Salmonella agents.

Keywords

Antimicrobial resistance; Application; Lytic bacteriophage; Prevalence; Salmonella; Slaughterhouse.

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