The Use of Bacteriophages in Animal Health and Food Protection

Bacteriophage therapy is usually considered as a procedure to treat human diseases. However, the use of bacteriophages to treat bacterial infections in animals is perhaps more advanced than human phage therapy. This is due to the fact that formal regulations on the use of various methods in treatment of animals are considerably less stringent than those for human therapies. This applies also to phage therapy. On the other hand, from studies on animals and development of phage therapy for animals, we can learn a lot about mechanisms and efficacy of application of phages to treat various infections. In this chapter, current stage of development of phage therapy for animals is presented and discussed. Applications of phages in animal breeding, aviculture, and aquaculture are described. The use of phages in food protection is also mentioned. Methods for phage isolation, propagation, purification, and administration in animal phage therapy are also briefly described and discussed.