Phagotherapy An alternative treatment to antibiotics used in aquaculture?

Abstract

As an old Arabic proverb says: «The enemy of my enemy is my friend». Lytic bacterial viruses that affect pathogenic bacteria can be powerful antibacterial agents and, therefore, our allies in the therapeutic field. These viruses were discovered in 1915 by the British Frederick Twort, and two years later, in 1917, independently by Felix d’Hérelle. The latter observed round clear areas in the bacterial culture from stool samples collected from convalescent patients with bacterial dysentery. Thus, he assumed that these clear areas (lysis halos) were caused by an «invisible microbe» able to lyse bacterial cells, which he named  as «bacteriophage» (bacterial killer or eater). In this article, a brief historical review of the use   of bacteriophages in the control of bacterial infections is carried out, as well as their recent applications  as therapeutic agents, specifically in the aquaculture field, to avoid the important trouble of the antibiotic multiresistant bacteria that provoke high mortalities in this sector