Researchers from the UK, Norway and Denmark have teamed up to develop a safe and efficient bacteriophage therapy to control Pasteurella bacteria in Atlantic salmon farms.
Bacteriophages are viruses that infect and kill bacteria and are emerging as an environmentally sustainable and a promisng alternative to antibiotics, helping the aquaculture industry to become more sustainable. Pasteurella is a bacterium that causes infections in various organs, makes boils and fistulas causing the fish to get sepsis and potentially die. By employing bacteriophages to salmon farms, the phages are very specific and can work as a self-replicating medicine at the site of infection without killing or harming the rest of the fishes' “good” bacteria.