Efficacy of phage therapy in poultry: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of antimicrobial resistant bacteria has sparked a renewed interest in alternative bacterial control methods, including bacteriophage administration. In order to determine the overall efficacy of bacteriophage administration for the reduction of bacterial concentrations in poultry, a systematic literature review and a meta-analysis were conducted. The systematic review included studies in which 1) live chickens were challenged with a known quantity of bacteria; and 2) challenged chickens were administered a known quantity of bacteriophages; and 3) concentrations of the challenge bacteria were measured in tissue/fluid samples from both challenged and unchallenged chickens after phage administration; and 4) either standard deviation or standard error was reported. Results of a meta-analysis of the 12 studies included in this review (total inputs: n = 41; total observations: n = 711) indicated that concentrations of challenge bacteria were significantly lower (P < 0.001) in challenged, phage-treated chickens than in challenged, untreated chickens (effect size = -0.82 log

Similar article map