Genomic analysis and morphological characterization of bacteriophages for Salmonella spp. treatment in poultry

Resumo

Enteric infections caused by Salmonella spp. represent a major public health problem worldwide, due to the large proportion of foodborne infections derived from this pathogen. Currently, antimicrobials are used to prevent contamination of chicken meat. However, in order to combat salmonellosis without the propagation of resistant strains, it is necessary to study alternative therapeutic approaches, such as the use of bacteriophages against Salmonellosis. For the present work bacteriophages provided by FMRP-USP were selected to further studies on its therapeutic potential. In addition, we work with lytic bacteriophages induced from monophasic strains of Salmonella spp. Our initial aim for this project was the morphological and molecular characterization of these viruses. Nevertheless, the environmental phages did not survive the storage period. Due to these results, our further studies will be focused on the lytic phages. They will be tested in vivo in the C. elegans model in order to evaluate the survival rate of the worms when infected with Salmonella spp.