Callaway Todd R, Edrington Tom S, Brabban Andrew D, Anderson Robin C, Rossman Michelle L, Engler Mike J, Carr Mandy A, Genovese Ken J, Keen James E, Looper Mike L, Kutter Elizabeth M, Nisbet David J
Food and Feed Safety Research Unit, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, College Station, Texas 77845, USA.
Foodborne Pathog Dis. 2008 Apr;5(2):183-91. doi: 10.1089/fpd.2007.0057.
Escherichia coli O157:H7 can live undetected in the gut of food animals and be spread to humans directly and indirectly. Bacteriophages are viruses that prey on bacteria, offering a natural, nonantibiotic method to reduce pathogens from the food supply. Here we show that a cocktail of phages isolated from commercial cattle feces reduced E. coli O157:H7 populations in the gut of experimentally inoculated sheep. A cocktail of phages was used in order to prevent the development of resistance to the phages. In our first in vivo study we found that our cocktail of phages reduced E. coli O157:H7 populations in the feces of sheep (p < 0.05) by 24 hours after phage treatment. Upon necropsy, populations of inoculated E. coli O157:H7 were reduced by phage treatment in both the cecum (p < 0.05) and rectum (p < 0.1). In our second in vivo study, several ratios of phage plaque-forming units (PFU) to E. coli O157:H7 colony-forming units (CFU) were used (0:1, 1:1, 10:1, and 100:1 PFU/CFU) to determine the most efficacious phage dose. A 1:1 ratio of phage to bacteria was found to be more effective (p < 0.05) than either of the higher ratios used (10:1 or 100:1). Ruminal levels of E. coli O157:H7 were not significantly reduced (p > 0.10) in any of the studies due to relatively low inoculated E. coli O157:H7 ruminal populations. Our results demonstrate that phage can be used as a preharvest intervention as part of an integrated pathogen reduction scheme.
大肠杆菌O157:H7可在食用动物的肠道中潜伏而不被察觉,并直接或间接地传播给人类。噬菌体是以细菌为食的病毒,提供了一种天然的、非抗生素的方法来减少食品供应中的病原体。在这里,我们表明从商业牛粪便中分离出的一组噬菌体可减少实验接种绵羊肠道中的大肠杆菌O157:H7数量。使用一组噬菌体是为了防止对噬菌体产生抗性。在我们的首次体内研究中,我们发现噬菌体处理24小时后,我们的一组噬菌体使绵羊粪便中的大肠杆菌O157:H7数量减少(p < 0.05)。尸检时,接种的大肠杆菌O157:H7数量在盲肠(p < 0.05)和直肠(p < 0.1)中均因噬菌体处理而减少。在我们的第二次体内研究中,使用了几种噬菌体噬菌斑形成单位(PFU)与大肠杆菌O157:H7菌落形成单位(CFU)的比例(0:1、1:1、10:1和100:1 PFU/CFU)来确定最有效的噬菌体剂量。发现噬菌体与细菌1:1的比例比使用的任何较高比例(10:1或100:1)更有效(p < 0.05)。由于接种的大肠杆菌O157:H7瘤胃数量相对较低,在任何研究中瘤胃中的大肠杆菌O157:H7水平均未显著降低(p > 0.10)。我们的结果表明,噬菌体可作为收获前干预措施,作为综合病原体减少方案的一部分。