Iranian Journal of Medical Microbiology

Background and Aim: The role of poultry in production of protein for growing population is undeniable. In other hand, these products are known as a resource of zoonotic pathogens specially Salmonella enteritidis. In past, antibiotics were used as a controlling agent for these pathogens, nowadays according to the banning of antibiotic growth promoters application and spread of resistant pathogens, administration of antibiotic alternatives is necessary. This study was conducted to isolate the bacteriophage and evaluation of it’s safety and efficiency on S. enteritidis in in vitro and in vivo conditions.

Materials and Methods: Bacteriophage was isolated in Poultry Microbiology Research Center of Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University of Tehran and it’s efficiency on S. enteritidis was evaluated by measuring optical density (OD) of nutrient broth containing S. enteritidis in presence of phage and lack of it, also experiment on animals was conducted. In order to evaluate phage safety, the effect of it on immune organ weights and humoral immune response of Japanese quail was determined.

Results: Isolated bacteriophage showed a potential ability in reducing S. enteritidis. Antibody titer against sheep erythrocytes and immune organ weights were not affected by treatments, while, the count of ileal lactic acid bacteria and antibody titer against influenza killed vaccine virus (H9N2) in groups that received bacteriophage had a significant difference in comparison to positive control (P<0.05).

Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that administration of this phage via oral gavage and cloacal drinking route can eliminate and decrease S. enteritidis colonization respectively, moreover it can improve immune response of challenged animals.