Development of a Biocontrol Method Applying Bacteriophage-Containing Aerosol against Using the Bacteriophage BTCU-1 and as Models.

The application of bacteriophages for biocontrol has attracted increasing attention. Here, we applied ϕBTCU-1 as a model phage to develop a method for controlling (MTB) by using a bacteriophage-containing aerosol in a chamber study. The soil-isolated ϕBTCU-1 can infect both MTB and . Our study used as an MTB surrogate for safety reasons. Among all the evaluated air samplers, the Andersen impactor was chosen to evaluate the bactericidal efficiency of ϕBTCU-1 against since the recovery rates of the Andersen impactor were 1.5 to 10.6 times higher than those of sampling filters. When airborne ϕBTCU-1 with the highest concentration of 10 PFU/m challenged (10 CFU/m) for 10 s, no colony was recovered from the culture medium. For surface decontamination, no colony of , which started at 1000 CFU/plate (63.6 cm), was recovered when exposed to higher ϕBTCU-1 concentrations (>10 PFU/m) for 60 min. Bacteriophages may be useful for reducing MTB contamination in the air or on hard surfaces. The method we have established suggests that the biocontrol method may be an alternative approach or may be combined with other disinfection methods to prevent MTB infection.