Salmonellosis is major food borne illness caused by Salmonella enteritidis. The emerging multidrug resistance has forced the scientists to investigate alternative control strategies including phage therapy to combat salmonellosis. Therefore, the current study was carried out to isolate multidrug resistance S. enteritidis from raw milk (n=40) and meat (n=30) samples. A total of 10 S. enteritidis isolates were recovered from raw milk whereas 8 isolates were from meat samples. These isolates were confirmed by Polymerase Chain Reaction using spvC gene specific primers yielding 571bp product. The anti-biogram studies were carried out on all isolates using different antimicrobials. The results showed 11 (61%) isolates were susceptible to most of the antibiotics while 7 (39%) isolates were found resistant and hence declared as multidrug resistant S. enteritidis. In the second step, sewage water was processed for the isolation of bacteriophages and was used for bacteriophages enrichment against a susceptible strain of S. enteritidis. Both clear and turbid plaques were isolated and enumerated. The results of bacteriophages isolation showed a total of 7 different bacteriophages isolated out of 10 processed samples. Lytic potential was measured by co-cultivation of S. enteritidis with isolated bacteriophages. The results showed the significant lytic potential of isolated bacteriophages against multidrug resistant S. enteritidis isolates from raw milk and meat samples. Altogether, the current study highlighted the significance of S. enteritidis as an important multi drug resistant food borne pathogen, further the bacteriophages therapy could be an alternative control remedy.

To Cite This Article: Siddique AB, Nawaz Z, Zahoor MA, Rafique A, Aslam B, Nazia N and Hussain R, 2018. Efficacy of lytic bacteriophages against multidrug resistant Salmonella enteritidis from milk and meat. Pak Vet J, 38(4): 353-358. http://dx.doi.org/10.29261/pakvetj/2018.092