Posters and presentation information
Thank you for considering to present your work as a poster at Phages 2020 Virtual.
Poster will be made available via a secure page to the symposium participants before the meeting. Please submit your final poster as both PDF and PNG/JPEG via the link below no later than 03rd September 2020. Late poster may not be included in the symposium programme.
The participants will be able to ask questions via Zoom during a dedicated poster session each day. Any further information about poster presentation at this digital meeting will be available in the future.
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Accepted posters
(Presenters in Bold)
Accepted poster abstracts will be displayed below. If your abstract has been accepted for presentation but it does not appear in the list below, please let us know as soon as possible by emailing PhageOxford@gmail.com.
Isolation and characterization of Carnobacterium bacteriophages
Amaia Lasagabaster1, Katherine Miranda-Cadena1, María Lavilla1, Felix Amarita1
1AZTI, Food Research, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA). Parque Tecnológico de Bizkaia, Astondo Bidea, Edificio 609, 48160 Derio, Bizkaia, Spain
Carnobacterium divergens (CD) and Carnobacterium maltaromaticum (CM) are ubiquitous LAB that can act as food spoilage agents in several modified atmosphere packed (MAP) and vacuum-packed (VP) food products. Their biocontrol by a specific bacteriophage-based solution could reduce Carnobacterium load and increase the shelf life of this kind of products. In this work, eight CM and two CD strains were used for the isolation of phages from sea/river water as well as MAP or VP seafood, meat and dairy products. Five bacteriophages were isolated from 230 analysed samples (isolation rate of 2.2%). Their host range evaluation revealed that one phage was active against two different CM strains while the other four showed high specificity against a single CD strain. All phages showed chloroform resistance, but only three phages were stable at 4 °C over six months. A cocktail combining the three stable phages to a final concentration of 106 PFU/ml allowed a broader host range than the individual application of each single phage. The cocktail was active against three hosts, including both CD and CM species, increasing the bacterial latency period of CD for 10 h at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 100. Moreover, the application of the cocktail at 104 PFU/g (MOI of 1) on the surface of cold smoked salmon, previously autoclaved and inoculated at 104 CFU/g with two host (independent assays), reduced by 0.5 – 1 log the counts of Carnobacterium. This work showed the use of Carnobacterium bacteriophages as a promising tool to fight the spoilage of MAP and VP food products related to these bacteria. However, further studies are needed before suitable food applications.
Optimization of Campylobacter specific bacteriophage isolation
Ibai Nafarrate1, Estibaliz Mateo2 and Amaia Lasagabaster1
1AZTI, Food Research, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA). Parque Tecnológico de Bizkaia, Astondo Bidea, Edificio 609, 48160 Derio, Bizkaia, Spain
2Departamento de Inmunología, Microbiología y Parasitología, UFI 11/25, Facultad de Medicina y Enfermería, Universidad Del País Vasco-Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU), Bilbao, Spain
Campylobacter is responsible for the 70% of all the reported zoonotic cases in the European Union (UE) and poultry is considered its natural reservoir. The control strategies proposed for the control of this pathogen have not completely solved the problem. Moreover, the development and spread of antimicrobial resistant Campylobacter highlights the need of alternative strategies to reduce the burden of this pathogen. Thus, the application of specific bacteriophages is a promising tool as a complement to currently existing measures. Their isolation is the first challenge to face since their occurrence appears to be low. To optimize it, seven isolation methods were assayed on the basis of an efficient phage recovery from broiler skin samples inoculated at loads of 5.0×101 – 5.0×106 PFU/g. The enrichment of samples in selective Bolton broth with target isolates was the most efficient procedure, showing a detection limit of 5.0×101 PFU/g and recovery rates up to 338%. Furthermore, this method was more effective at lower phage titres, showing its suitability for phage isolation at the low concentrations occurring in foods. When this method was applied to isolate new Campylobacter phages from retail broiler skin, a total of 280 phages were recovered achieving an isolation success rate of 257%. From the 109 samples 68 resulted phage positive (62%). The optimized method also showed its effectiveness for the isolation of phages from swine faeces. From this latter matrix, 18 new campylophages were recovered which also means an isolation success rate of 257%. In this case a 43% of bacteriophage positive samples was observed. Therefore, both broiler skin and swine faeces could be considered a rich source in Campylobacter phages when the appropriate methodology is used. This is a simple, reproducible and efficient method for the successful isolation of campylophages, which could be helpful for the enhancement of food safety via the reduction of this pathogen contamination.
