Phage therapy for bacterial disease control in aquaculture

Sanat Chandravanshi¹ and Gadadhar Dash²

¹ Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Aquatic Animal Health, Faculty of Fishery Sciences, West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
² Professor, Department of Aquatic Animal Health, Faculty of Fishery Sciences, West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

Corresponding Email: chandravanshisanat97@gmail.com

doi.org/10.5281/FishWorld.23504038

Aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing food-producing sectors worldwide. However, the increasing intensification of farming systems has heightened the risk of bacterial disease outbreaks, creating major challenges for aquatic animal health, production efficiency, and sustainability. The extensive and sometimes inappropriate use of antibiotics for disease control has raised additional concerns regarding antimicrobial resistance, environmental impacts, and disruption of beneficial microbial communities. In this context, phage therapy has emerged as a promising, targeted alternative that uses naturally occurring bacteriophages—viruses that specifically infect and destroy bacteria—to control bacterial pathogens in aquaculture. Lytic bacteriophages attach to susceptible bacterial cells, replicate within them, and ultimately cause cell lysis, thereby reducing pathogenic bacterial populations and, in some cases, disrupting bacterial biofilms. Unlike broad-spectrum antibiotics, bacteriophages generally exhibit a narrow host range, allowing them to target specific pathogens while limiting direct effects on non-target microorganisms (Liu et al., 2022). Phage-based approaches have been investigated against important aquaculture pathogens, including Vibrio, Aeromonas, Edwardsiella, Streptococcus, and Flavobacterium, highlighting their potential contribution to sustainable disease management and reduced dependence on conventional antibiotics.