Novel application of bacteriophage for controlling foaming in wastewater treatment plant- an eco-friendly approach.

This addendum to "Novel application of bacteriophage for controlling foaming in wastewater treatment plant- an eco-friendly approach " includes characteristics of the phages NOC1, NOC2 and NOC3 not discussed in the previous paper. The phage adsorption and host interaction properties, their sensitivity to pH and temperature are inferred. NOC2 is seen to be more temperature resistant while others are not. All the phages show pH sensitivity. There is a variance observed in the behavior of these phages. Also, applicability of the phage based system to large scale reactors is studied and discussed here.

Isolation and characterization of bacteriophages infecting nocardioforms in wastewater treatment plant.

Activated sludge plants (ASP) are associated with the stable foaming problem worldwide. Apart from the physical and chemical treatment methods, biological treatment method has been least explored and may prove to be a novel and ecofriendly approach to tackle the problem of stable foam formation. In ASP Nocardia species are commonly found and are one of the major causes for forming sticky and stable foam. This study describes the isolation and characterization of three Nocardia bacteriophages NOC1, NOC2, and NOC3 for the control of Nocardia species. The bacteriophages isolated in this study have shown promising results in controlling foam producing bacterial growth under laboratory conditions, suggesting that it may prove useful in the field as an alternative biocontrol agent to reduce the foaming problem. To the best of our knowledge to date no work has been published from India related to biological approach for the control of foaming.

Novel bacteriophage therapy for controlling metallo-beta-lactamase producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in catfish.

BACKGROUND: The bacteriophage therapy is an effective antimicrobial approach with potentially important applications in medicine and biotechnology which can be seen as an additional string in the bow. Emerging drug resistant bacteria in aquaculture industry due to unrestricted use of antibiotics warrants more sustainable and environmental friendly strategies for controlling fish infections.The isolated bacteria from fish lesions was characterised based on isolation on selective and differential medium like Pseudomonas agar, gram staining, biochemical tests and 16SrRNA sequencing. The metallo-beta-lactamase (MBL) producing bacterial isolate was evaluated using Imipenem - Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) disk method. The specific bacteriophage was isolated and concentrated using coal bed developed in our lab at CSIR-NEERI. The isolated and enriched bacteriophage was characterised by nucleotide sequencing and electron microscopy. The phage therapy was applied for treating ulcerative lesion in fish. RESULTS: The pathogenic bacterium responsible for causing ulcerative lesions in catfish species (Clarias gariepinus) was identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa. One out of twenty P. aeruginosa isolate showing multi drug resistance (MDR) was incidentally found to be MBL producing as determined by Imipenem-EDTA disk method. The phage therapy effectively cured the ulcerative lesions of the infected fish in 8-10 days of treatment, with a sevenfold reduction of the lesion with untreated infection control. CONCLUSION: Bacteriophage therapy can have potential applications soon as an alternative or as a complement to antibiotic treatment in the aquaculture. We present bacteriophage therapy as a treatment method for controlling MDR P. aeruginosa infection in C. gariepinus. To the best of our knowledge this is a first report of application of phage therapy against MBL producing P. aeruginosa isolated from aquatic ecosystem.