Universidade do Minho. Departamento de Engenharia Biológica (DEB)
Abstract
Phages have been proposed as natural antimicrobial agents to fight bacterial infections in
animals. This is supported by several scientific evidences of the efficacy of phage therapy for
veterinary applications. However, there are important safety issues that should be taken into
consideration when developing a phage product for veterinary applications. For example it is of utmost importance to guarantee that phages are non‐temperate and do not encode bacterial toxins. The phage administration strategy and timing should also be adequate in order to reduce the development of phage‐resistant mutants. The present work describes the main strategies used to ensure a safe phage product for veterinary application, based on the results obtained on the scope of the European Project Phagevet‐P (Veterinary Phage Therapies as Alternatives to Antibiotics in Poultry Production FP6‐2003‐Food‐2‐A:007224)