Application of Quorum Quenching in the Control of Animal Bacterial Pathogens

Abstract

Nowadays infectious diseases are the main challenge for animal producers whether they are cultivating terrestrial or aquatic animals. The use of antibiotics to control bacterial diseases of animals is increasing throughout the world, and as a result, the numbers of antibiotic resistance bacteria are also increasing. The development of alternative methods to control infectious diseases in animals is vital to sustain animal production. Many pathogenic bacteria use quorum sensing (QS) systems for controlling the expression of various genes involved in the promoting of invasion process, defense, spread, and virulence factors in a cell density-dependent manner. Interference of the QS system of pathogenic bacteria has been proposed as a new anti-infective strategy and is referred to as quorum quenching (QQ). The promise for development of effective QQ strategy lies in the search of a QQ agent that does not inhibit the growth of a bacterium but only inhibits virulence, thus obviating the problem of a rise in drug resistance. This approach is interesting because they do not directly challenge bacterial survival, and result low selection pressure and low chance of resistance development. QQ agents can be QQ strains, QQ enzymes, or QS inhibitors. In this review, we discuss the significant contribution of QQ for the reduction and control of bacterial infectious diseases in animals. Although more research is needed for it to be better understood, the QQ strategy is effective for reducing the effects of enteric bacterial diseases, improving the immune system, suppressing pathogenic gut microbiota of the host, and improving gut health and promoting animal performance in antibiotic-free production systems for aquatic and terrestrial animals.