Abstract:
Foodborne diseases can cause many cases of illness and death mostly because of foodborne bacterial pathogen infection. Generally, infectious patients are treated with antibiotics. However, emergence of drug-resistant bacteria has become a serious problem in medical treatment nowadays. Bacteriophage treatment could be an alternative approach to control foodborne pathogens, since bacteriophages are viruses that can only infect and lyse specific bacterial cells. In this study, ninety-seven phages were isolated from twenty sewage samples collected in Nakhon Pathom and Nonthaburi provinces. Salmonella Typhimurium and Salmonella Enteritidis were used to serve as hosts for phage isolation. Fifty-one phage isolates formed clear plaques and were selected for host range test. Host range test was conducted by spot test using Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus and 20 serovars of Salmonella as tested bacteria. Spot test results revealed that the tested phages were able to infect most Salmonella serovars excepted S. Worthington. Additionally, these phages did not infect E. coli, L. monocytogenes and S. aureus. Four phages including STy_RN5i1, STy_RN12i1, STy_RN25i1 and STy_RN29 were then selected to determine their efficiency of plating (EOP) and multiplicity of infection (MOI). The EOP results indicated that STy_RN29 was more efficient than other phages. STy_RN29 phage was able to lyse 8 out of 20 Salmonella serovars tested. Six of eight serovars were lysed with high efficiency (EOP > 0.5). The MOI results showed that STy_RN5i1 and STy_RN29 phages were able to reduce S. Typhimurium concentration more than 6 log CFU/mL after an hour at MOI 1 treatment. While STy_RN12i1 and STy_RN25i1 reduced their host with 5.65 and 2.57 log CFU/mL reduction, respectively. However, Salmonella regrowth was observed in all phage treatments. The results of phage genome analysis by restriction analysis revealed that these phages had double-strand DNA. Moreover, the morphological study using transmission election microscope (TEM) indicated that STy_RN5i1 and STy_RN12i1 phages were assigned to the family Podoviridae. While STy_RN25i1 and STy_RN29 were classified as members of the family Siphoviridae. These phages have ability to reduce Salmonella concentration and retard Salmonella growth. Therefore, the use of bacteriophages could be an interesting alternative option to control foodborne bacterial pathogens.