Saudi Journal of Pathology and Microbiology (SJPM)
Volume-4 | Issue-01 | 48-57
Original Research Article
Bacteriophage Formulations for the Reduction of Multi-Drug Resistant E.coli in Water Sources
P. U. Megha, S. Murugan, P. S. Harikumar, T. K. Muzammil
Published : Jan. 30, 2019
Abstract
Production and supply of pathogen and toxic chemical free water is the preliminary aim of water treatment. The natural
killing property of bacteriophages makes them the most prominent tool in eliminating unwanted bacteria, making them
ideal candidate in water treatment research. In this study phage formulations against multidrug resistant E. coli
KP005067 were fabricated by immobilizing them in broth, activated charcoal and alginate beads. The cross section of the
phage formulation was analysed using Confocal Raman Microscope and the disinfection study was carried out in batch
and packed bed reactor. The phage formulations remained stable for almost 4-8 and 3-5 months at 4oC and 30oC
respectively. The batch reduction study using phage connoted the order of host reduction as phage-charcoal > phagebroth > phage-bead. Further more, the disinfection study using packed bed reactor showed 100 and 97% host reduction
using phage-charcoal and phage-bead respectively. At the same time, there was concomitant increase in the phage
population in the packed bed-reactor indicating that the phage formulations are highly potent in killing bacterial pathogen
in water.