Overcoming the challenges of phage therapy for industrial aquaculture: A review

Aquaculture is the fastest-growing sector in food industry. Its development is powered by the intensification of the production which increased bacterial disease occurrence and spreading. As aquaculture deeply relies on a massive prophylactic and therapeutic use of antibiotics, it is threatened by the emergence of multi drug resistant bacteria. The stalled development of new antibiotics makes finding new therapeutic solutions a burning issue. Thanks to their specific host range, their ability to treat both the farmed species and the environment, their limited ecological impact and their abundance in the environment, bacteriophages represent a promising sustainable solution to control pathogenic aquaculture bacteria. In this review we discuss the interest of phage biocontrol for aquaculture and how can bacterial resistance, ecological, pharmacological and production related issues be solved.