Abstract
The ability of agriculture to continually provide food to a growing world population is of crucial importance. Bacterial diseases of plants and animals have continually reduced production since the advent of crop cultivation and animal husbandry practices. Antibiotics have been used extensively to mitigate these losses. The rise of antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacteria, however, together with consumers’ calls for antibiotic-free products, presents problems that threaten sustainable agriculture. Bacteriophages (phages) are proposed as bacterial population control alternatives to antibiotics. Their unique properties make them highly promising but challenging antimicrobials. The use of phages in agriculture also presents a number of unique challenges. This mini-review summarizes recent development and perspectives of phages used as antimicrobial agents in plant and animal agriculture at the farm level. The main pathogens and their adjoining phage therapies are discussed.
Highlights
The goal of sustainable agriculture is to implement practices that will attain healthy disease-free plants and animals, provide safe food for a growing global population, and minimize the impact of agricultural practices on the environment [1,2,3]
Important strides in phage therapy were overshadowed by the widespread usage of antibiotics to treat diseases in humans, animal husbandry, and the control of bacterial plant pathogens
The overuse in medicine and animal husbandry has contributed to the rise of worldwide antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacteria
Summary
The goal of sustainable agriculture is to implement practices that will attain healthy disease-free plants and animals, provide safe food for a growing global population, and minimize the impact of agricultural practices on the environment [1,2,3]. Use of phages, which infect and destroy bacteria, could significantly reduce the environmental impact of antibiotic use in agriculture, while potentially increasing profitability by lowering crop loss or animal mortality in early stages of the breeding process. Phages are inherently highly specific towards bacterial hosts This characteristic has both negative and positive aspects in that it is beneficial in terms of avoiding negative effects on the host microbiota and a hindrance when it comes to detection and elimination of the target pathogen. This mini-review will focus primarily on the progress of phage-based biocontrol in food production systems covering the past 10 years. We discuss the progress made in the use of phages in plant and animal farming, focusing on the challenges and success stories reported in scientific literature
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