Role of Bacteriophages for Optimized Health and Production of Poultry

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The poultry industry has emerged as a significant contributor in meeting the requirement for animal meat. Meanwhile, there arose health issues that were dealt with from time to time with various treatment approaches, such as the use of antibiotics, prebiotics, and probiotics that specifically fight against pathogens. It is very important to find more refined alternative therapeutics to tackle threats to the health and production of poultry. Bacteriophages have emerged as effective alternatives to antibiotics to tackle pathogens with minimized adverse effects. They can be used to target pathogens alone or pathogens in groups. The studies regarding bacteriophages in poultry production require finding a concise review of their mechanism of action: The required questions are like what are the benefits of poultry production? What are the threats associated with it? What is the role of bacteriophages in biosecurity and biosafety? And what is their impact on the economic situation? This review thus covers these aspects to come up with a better understanding of the use of bacteriophages in the poultry industry. This review is expected to open horizons to further research work on bacteriophages for poultry and to promote product development to lower the burden of antimicrobial resistance. ABSTRACT: The poultry sector is facing infections from Salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria and Staphylococcus spp., and Escherichia coli, that have developed multidrug resistance aptitude. Antibiotics cause disturbances in the balance of normal microbiota leading to dysbiosis, immunosuppression, and the development of secondary infections. Bacteriophages have been reported to lower the colonization of Salmonella and Campylobacter in poultry. The specificity of bacteriophages is greater than that of antibiotics and can be used as a cocktail for enhanced antibacterial activity. Specie-specific phages have been prepared, e.g., Staphylophage (used against Staphylococcus bacteria) that specifically eliminate bacterial pathogens. Bacteriophage products, e.g., BacWash(TM) and Ecolicide PX have been developed as antiseptics and disinfectants for effective biosecurity and biosafety measures. The success of phage therapy is influenced by time to use, the amount used, the delivery mechanism, and combination therapy with other therapeutics. It is a need of time to build a comprehensive understanding of the use of bacteriophages in poultry production. The current review thus focuses on mechanisms of bacteriophages against poultry pathogens, their applications in various therapeutics, impacts on the economy, and current challenges.