Characterisation of bacteriophage and bacteriophage cocktails from agricultural sources as potentially novel antimicrobial agents

Antibiotic resistance poses a significant threat to health and life in clinical and veterinary sectors. This threat is described as an urgent One Health issue and is forecast to claim millions of lives annually to the cost of trillions USD by 2050. Antibiotic resistant pathogens including E. coli, Klebsiella sp., Pseudomonas sp., Proteus sp. and Streptococci sp. all cause disease to both humans and animals requiring antibiotic treatment. The misuse of antibiotics and the release of their metabolites has increased the rate of antibiotic resistance, driving the One Health approach to pursue global collaborations and alternative treatments. Bacteriophages are the natural viral enemy to bacteria and their nature can be exploited to the benefit of the One Health approach. In this research, 288 individual bacterial isolates were used of which 202 were susceptible to phage like activity. These results support the thesis positive hypothesis that the presence of phage-like activity can be identified from soil substrate and faecal sources and will exhibit a lytic response to environmental bacterial isolates. The minimum lytic concentration of bacteriophage was investigated and E. coli isolates were analysed through MALDI-TOF to identify any potential peptide associations between strains. Bacteriophages can play a key role as an effective alternative to traditional antibiotics. Much research into the effectiveness of bacteriophages has already been published and the applications of bacteriophage can be applied in clinical and veterinary medicine, food security and environmental safety. This research has provided the foundation for future research into phage like activity and bacteriophages at Kingston University, including identification of bacteriophages through electron microscopy, development of bacteriophage cocktails and isolation and synthesis of lysin.