NEWLY ISOLATED BACTERIOPHAGES FOR VIBRIO CHOLERAE 0139

Abstract

F16 Diarrhoeal diseases are a major public health problem. specially in a developing country. Vibrio cholera 01, the causative agent of cholera still ranks as the first and foremost among the enteropathogens associated with diarrhoeal diseases. Till 1992, epidemics of cholera have most frequently been caused by Vibrio cholerae 01. During the year 1992-93, the emergence of a new toxigenic serogroup of Vibrio. Vibrio cholerae 0139 was responsible for causing epidemic in Indian subcontinent. A total of five newly isolated bacteriophages sensitive to Vibrio cholerae 0139 were collected from sewage water samples from different endemic areas of India. These phages were resistant to Vibrio cholerae 01 biotype EIT or (MAK 757. 10ATCC typed strains) and classical (Vibrio cholerae 1 54 & 569B) strains. Electron microscopic Studies, protein profile in SDS-PAGE and restriction endonuclease digestion pattern of DNA clearly reveals that these phages differs from each other as well as with other reported ElTor 01 and classical phages (149). Additionally, anti phage antisera neutralization test and immunoblot study showed that these phages were antegenically related but were antigenically different front EITor and classic phages. All the five high titre phages 1010-1011 PFU/ml) at RTD were used for phage typing study. A total of 260 Vibrio cholerae 0139 strains isolated from different geographic areas of the country were employed for phage typing using a set of five typing phages. All of the strains were typeable and could be clustered into 8 different phage types. These phages may, therefore, be used to develop a phage typing scheme of Vibrio cholerae 0139 strains.