Bacteriophage Therapy for Sustainable Management of Bacterial Diseases in Aquaculture

Abstract

Aquaculture is a growing industry that contributes to the food supply both locally and regionally. The industry has to contend with serious issues such as antibiotic-resistant bacteria and other infections which pose severe economic threats. In aquaculture, bacteriophage therapy, which uses viruses that infect and kill specific bacteria, is now considered an alternative to antibiotics. This review summarize the current state of research on the use of phage therapy in aquaculture with emphasis on the isolation and characterization of aquaculture specific phages and their actions, and the role of such phages in disease prophylaxis and therapy. However, phage therapy is limited due to difficulties such as bacterial resistance to bacteriophages and regulation challenge. Further work is required on method optimization for phage delivery along with long-term effectiveness. Additionally, this review discusses the issues and prospects of using phages therapy for the sustainable development of aquaculture.