Reference Laboratory for Veterinary Quality Control on Poultry Production, Animal Health Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, Giza, 264, Egypt.
Vet Res Commun. 2021 Dec;45(4):409-421. doi: 10.1007/s11259-021-09821-3. Epub 2021 Sep 13.
In Egypt, little attention has been paid to the isolation and application of C. perfringens phages for treating necrotic enteritis at the farm level. This study aims to evaluate the efficiency of the podovirus C. perfringens phage in treating necrotic enteritis in broiler chickens. Accordingly, C. perfringens phage was isolated from cecal samples of apparently healthy chickens and characterized by transmission electron microscopy, thermal stability test, and pH stability test. Commercial 14-day-old Arbor Acres broiler chickens were allocated to three groups: group Ӏ received BHI broth and assigned as a negative control, group П served as a positive control group that was challenged with C. perfringens via oral gavage for four successive days, and group Ш was administrated six phage doses on several occasions after oral gavage challenge with C. perfringens. Daily clinical symptoms and mortality were recorded. At three-time intervals, necrotic enteritis lesions were scored. Cecal samples were examined for re-isolation and counting of C. perfringens. The isolated C. perfringens phage was a podovirus with an icosahedral head diameter of 78.7 nm and a short non-contractile tail length of 22.2 nm. It remained stable for 60 min at 30 °C and 50 °C at pH values of 2, 4, 8, and 10. The phage-treated group (Ш) showed mild gross lesions with a lower mortality rate and reduced colony-forming units than the positive control group (П). The findings revealed that the isolated C. perfringens phage effectively treated experimental necrotic enteritis in broiler chickens.
在埃及，人们很少关注梭菌噬菌体的分离和应用，以在农场层面治疗坏死性肠炎。本研究旨在评估梭菌 podophage 噬菌体治疗肉鸡坏死性肠炎的效率。因此，从表现健康的鸡的盲肠样本中分离出梭菌噬菌体，并通过透射电子显微镜、热稳定性试验和 pH 稳定性试验对其进行了表征。将商业的 14 日龄 Arbor Acres 肉鸡分为三组：Ⅰ组接受 BHI 肉汤，作为阴性对照；Ⅱ组作为阳性对照，连续四天通过口服灌胃方式用梭菌攻毒；Ш组在口服灌胃攻毒后多次接受六剂噬菌体。记录每日临床症状和死亡率。在三个时间间隔，对坏死性肠炎病变进行评分。检查盲肠样本以重新分离和计数梭菌。分离的梭菌噬菌体是一种 podophage，具有 78.7nm 的二十面体头部直径和 22.2nm 的短非收缩性尾部长度。它在 30°C 和 50°C 下保持稳定 60 分钟，在 pH 值为 2、4、8 和 10 时保持稳定。噬菌体处理组（Ш）表现出轻微的大体病变，死亡率和形成的菌落数比阳性对照组（П）低。研究结果表明，分离的梭菌噬菌体有效地治疗了肉鸡实验性坏死性肠炎。
