Phage therapy as an approach to prevent Vibrio anguillarum infections in fish larvae production

PLoS One. 2014 Dec 2;9(12):e114197. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0114197. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Fish larvae in aquaculture have high mortality rates due to pathogenic bacteria, especially the Vibrio species, and ineffective prophylactic strategies. Vaccination is not feasible in larvae and antibiotics have reduced efficacy against multidrug resistant bacteria. A novel approach to controlling Vibrio infections in aquaculture is needed. The potential of phage therapy to combat vibriosis in fish larvae production has not yet been examined. We describe the isolation and characterization of two bacteriophages capable of infecting pathogenic Vibrio and their application to prevent bacterial infection in fish larvae. Two groups of zebrafish larvae were infected with V. anguillarum (∼106 CFU mL-1) and one was later treated with a phage lysate (∼108 PFU mL-1). A third group was only added with phages. A fourth group received neither bacteria nor phages (fish control). Larvae mortality, after 72 h, in the infected and treated group was similar to normal levels and significantly lower than that of the infected but not treated group, indicating that phage treatment was effective. Thus, directly supplying phages to the culture water could be an effective and inexpensive approach toward reducing the negative impact of vibriosis in larviculture.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Aquaculture / methods*
  • Bacteriophages / isolation & purification
  • Bacteriophages / physiology*
  • Fish Diseases / microbiology
  • Fish Diseases / prevention & control*
  • Larva / microbiology
  • Vibrio / isolation & purification
  • Vibrio / physiology*
  • Vibrio / virology
  • Vibrio Infections / prevention & control
  • Vibrio Infections / veterinary*
  • Zebrafish / growth & development
  • Zebrafish / microbiology*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by FEDER COMPETE (Competitiveness Factors Operational Program) and by FCT (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology), under the research project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-013934; and Center for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM) for funding (Project Pest-C/MAR/LA0017/2013). Financial support to Y. J. Silva, C. Pereira, and L. Costa was provided by FCT in the form of PhD grants (SFRH/BD/65147/2009 and SFRH/BD/76414/2011) and a BI grant (BI/UI88/5319/2011), respectively. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.