Ny bakteriofagbasert løsning mot Pasteurella

Offentlig prosjektsammendrag

Pasteurella, the causative agent of pasteurellosis, is an increasingly emerging threat for farmed Norwegian salmon, and despite its implications and impact on fish stocks, little is known about this infectious agent. Antibiotic treatments are generally discouraged, vaccine development is still in its infancy and no specific effective treatments currently exist. To address this, we propose to develop a bacteriophage therapy approach to prevent and control pasteurellosis in salmon farming. Bacteriophages, or phages, are viruses that have very specific infection profiles, targeting either bacterial species or their subspecies. All bacterial species have phages as natural enemies. We will isolate phages that exclusively target and kill Pasteurella strains associated with Norwegian farmed salmon. Phages will be characterised according to their host ranges and ability to infect in salmon farming settings. Phages can be used as a successful and specific tool to eliminate or drastically reduce disease load in a given host or environment. Evidence for the effective use of phages in aquaculture can be seen from our recently launched phage-based product, CUSTUS®yrs, that provides safe and effective biocontrol of the salmonid pathogen Yersinia ruckeri. A phage product takes less time to develop than a vaccine and it can be immediately delivered to fish in danger of infection to prevent or treat disease. Unlike antibiotics, as phages are specialized viruses with a very limited host range, they do not cause damage to the beneficial microbes associated with fish, or to bacteria in the natural environment.