Comparative inhibitory action of 4 standard bacteriophages on the larvicidal activity of certain mosquito pathogenic bacteria against culex pipiens larvae

ABSTRACT

Four bacteriophages [CP-51, CP-54, Yousten-4 and Yousten-14] were assayed against 7 entemopathogenic bacterial strains. The two CP ones, indicating variability of the host range of the tested phages was suggested to be related to the environmental characteristics of the tested strains. On testing the susceptibility of 5 bacterial strains to the phage Yousten-4 at different cultural ages, a correlation was found between incubation time and level of bacterial susceptibility to the tested phage. This observation was explained to be due to the number of vegetative cells and/or sporulation