Isolation and characterization of Clostridium perfringens lytic phages for veterinary applications in the poultry industry

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Necrotic enteritis caused by the toxigenic bacterium Clostridium perfringens (Cp) is a burden on animal health, especially in the poultry industry. This pathogen is also a concern for food safety as Cp can be transmitted to human through the food chain. The ban of antimicrobial growth promoter use in European countries was almost immediately followed by health problems in broiler flocks, with the most remarkable increase in acute clinical and subclinical necrotic enteritis caused by Cp. Canadian legislation on antimicrobial growth promoter use will be enforced by the end of 2018 and the Canadian poultry industry is facing the lack of suitable and efficient alternatives to prevent health problem in broiler flocks. The total global economic loss due to outbreaks of necrotic enteritis is estimated to be over $2.5 billions annually and, to date, the industry does not have any efficient remedy for the problem. With this project in collaboration with SyntBioLabo Inc., we seek to develop cocktails of lytic phages (i.e. bacterial viruses) capable of killing Cp in phage therapy applications. Although Cp phages have been isolated before and phage therapy to prevent necrotic enteritis in chickens has been demonstrated, there is little data and few Cp phages available. Moreover, these phages must target the bacterial strains currently circulating in poultry farms.**Objectives: Our first objective will consist in isolating from chicken feces Cp strains currently in circulation in 8 poultry farms of the province of Quebec. Our second objective will consist in screening fecal samples to detect virulent phages against 80-90% of the most prevalent Cp strains identified in objective 1. To reach our goals, we will use well-established microbiological and molecular methods to characterize Cp strains, as well as the isolated phages. By the end of this project, we aim to gather 15-20 lytic phages that could be combined into a cocktail. This project will reinforce our fundamental understanding of the biology, diversity, and therapeutic potential of Cp phages. Because Cp can infect both humans and animals, success of our project could represent an important milestone for future phage therapy of Cp in humans. ****