Characterization and utilization of phages specific to Campylobacter coli

Abstract

Campylobacter spp. are commonly found in raw meat especially poultry meat. Control of Campylobacterin poultry meat is difficult due to therate of contamination and viable counts of Campylobacter. Bacteriophages (phages) have been increasingly exploited to combat the bacterial contamination in food. This study demonstrated the isolation, characterization and application of lytic phages against Campylobacter coli (C. coli). From 23 different raw beef and chicken meat samples, a total of 16 lytic phages against C. coli were successfully isolated and purified. Among these phages, CAM-P21, isolated from beef mince, was morphologically characterized as aunique member of the Siphoviridaefamily, with a broad host range, a higher titer and great stability under various stress conditions. Phage CAM-P21 seems unique since almost all Campylobacterphages isolated so far are members of the Myoviridaefamily. One-step growth curve indicated that phage CAM-P21 had a latent period of 60 min and a burst size of 20 PFU/cell. DNA purification and gel electrophoresis revealed that the genome sizes of phage CAM-P21 was estimated to be approximately 15–17 kb. The phage CAM-P21 significantly reduced (P< 0.05) the viable counts of C. coli in vitroby 2.11 log after 12 h of incubation at 42°C, 2.67 log after 24 h at 37°C and 1.09 log after 48 h at 8°C, compared with untreated controls. These findings suggest that phage CAM-P21 seems to be a potential and promising agent for biocontrol of C. coli in food.