Efficacy of phage vB_EcoP_ZCEC16 in controlling Escherichia coli contamination in fresh poultry meat

Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) poses a substantial economic and health challenges for poultry and meat industries. One of the promising alternative approaches to overcome bacterial contamination in food products is bacteriophage, due to its high specificity, safety, and effectiveness. We aimed to isolate a bacteriophage against E. coli causing poultry diseases and investigate its potential as biocontrol/therapeutic agent. A novel E. coli phage vB_EcoP_ZCEC16 was isolated from poultry samples. vB_EcoP_ZCEC16 is a podophage as visualized by transmission electron microscope, and it exhibited a high thermal and pH stability, and high lytic activity at MOIs 0.1 and 1 demonstrated by rapid reduction in bacterial optical density. Whole-genome analysis clustered the phage within Kuravirus genus and confirmed its virulence and the absence of antimicrobial resistance genes. The phage was also safe at high concentration (10 9 PFU/mL) on human fibroblast cells (HSF) and human colon carcinoma (Caco-2) cell lines as no cytotoxic effect was observed after 24 h. In addition, the lowest tested phage MOI (0.1) was the most protective to HSF cells against bacterial infection. Finally, phage vB_EcoP_ZCEC16 was evaluated for its biocontrol efficacy, where it significantly reduced the count of E. coli contaminating fresh poultry meat after 2 h of treatment. Our study introduced a novel virulent phage with the potential of biocontrol agent for enhancing food safety.