Bacteriophages active against Bacteroides fragilis in sewage-polluted waters

Abstract

Twelve strains of different Bacteroides species were tested for their efficiency of detection of bacteriophages from sewage. The host range of several isolated phages was investigated. The results indicated that there was a high degree of strain specificity. Then, by using Bacteroidesfragilis HSP 40 as the host, which proved to be the most efficient for the detection of phages, feces from humans and several animal species and raw sewage, river water, water from lagoons, seawater, groundwater, and sediments were tested for the presence of bacteriophages that were active against B. fragilis HSP 40. Phages were detected in feces of 10% of the human fecal samples tested and was never detected in feces of the other animal species studied. Moreover, bacteriophages were always recovered from sewage and sewage-polluted samples of waters and sediments, but not from nonpolluted samples. The titers recovered were dependent on the degree of pollution in analyzed waters and sediments. * Corresponding author. MATERIALS AND METHODS Bacterial strains. Twenty-five strains of Bacteroides were used in this study. Strains HSP 39, HSP 40, and HSP 44 were obtained from the Microbiology Service at the Hospital de Sant Pau (Barcelona, Spain). They were isolated from peritoneal exudates and were classified as Bacteroides fragilis according to substrate utilization, products of fermentation determined by gas-liquid chromatography, growth in 20% bile, and indole production (12).

Viral contaminants of molluscan shellfish: detection and characterisation

“…The requirement of sophisticated facilities and well-trained personnel to conduct studies with enteric viruses and the unreliability of bacterial model microorganisms led to the search for alternatives. Several bacteriophage groups appear as promising candidates, among them somatic coliphages (IAWPRC Study Group on Health Related Water Microbiology, 1991), F+ specific (male-specific), RNA (FRNA) bacteriophages (Havelaar, 1993) and Bacteroides fragilis bacteriophages (Tartera and Jofre, 1987), all of them with available ISO (International Standardization Office) procedures for their detection in water. FRNA phages in particular have been described as promising candidates to evaluate the virological quality of shellfish (Lees, 2000).…”

16 Methods for Detecting Microbial Pathogens in Food and Water

“…(Evison and James, 1975), and Rhodococcus coprophilus (Mara and Oragui, 1981). Because bacterial indicators fail to correlate with the presence of viral pathogens, coliphages (Guelin, 1948), Fmale phages (Havelaar et al, 1985), and phages against B. fragilis (Jofre et al, 1986;Tartera and Jofre, 1987), which have survival properties similar to those of viral pathogens, have been proposed as indicators of viral contamination. The use, shortcomings, advantages, and detection methods for indicator organisms have been reviewed extensively (Hoadley and Dutka, 1977;Mossel, 1978Mossel, , 1982Matches and Abeyta, 1983;Reinhold, 1983;Splittstoesser, 1983;Tompkin, 1983;Hartman et al, 1986).…”

A simple, rapid and sensitive presence/absence detection test for bacteriophage in drinking water

“…For more than two decades, bacteriophages have been proposed as reliable indicators of enterovirus presence in drinking water (Kott 1966;Kott et al 1974;Grabow et al 1984;Tartera and Jofre 1987;Havelaar and Pot-Hogeboom 1988;Loh et al 1988). Bacteriophages show higher resistance to environmental stresses compared with bacterial indicators such as coliforms and faecal coliforms (Havelaar and Hogeboom 1983;Grabow et al 1984;Bitton 1987).…”

“…Recently, bacteriophages infecting Bacteroides fragilis subsp. fragilis have been proposed as reliable indicators of viral pollution in drinking water (Tartera and Jofre 1987;Tartera et al 1989). Consequently, rapid detection methods for these potential indicators in faecally-contaminated drinking water sources, is desirable.…”

“…fragilis HSP40 strain. The bottom agar was a modified blood agar base (MBAB), and the top agar was a modified brucella broth (MBB) supplemented with 0.05 % potassium sorbate (Tartera and Jofre 1987). Shortly after top layer solidification, the plates were incubated inside an anaerobic jar (GasPack; BBL) at 36°C for 18-24 h.…”