The optimal conditions for the production of virulent bacteriophages in bioreactors can vary greatly depending on the host-bacteriophage system used. We present a general method for the production of virulent bacteriophages in bioreactors that can be adapted to many host-bacteriophage systems and various operating conditions (reactor volume, medium composition, temperature, etc.). The procedures detail how to establish optimal initial infection conditions (infection load and initial multiplicity of infection (MOI)), prepare the host pre-culture and bioreactor, operate the bioreactor, and harvest the bacteriophage product. Batch operation is detailed but a short discussion addresses other modes of operation, namely two-stage continuous bioreactors and two-stage cycling bioreactors.
Keywords: Bacteriophage production; Batch reactors; Bioreactors; Optimization; Two-stage production.