Efficiency of a bacteriophage in controlling vibrio infection in the juvenile sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus

Vibro cyclitrophicus is thought to be responsible for the cause of severe infection in juvenile sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus). Increases in the prevalence of antibiotic resistant pathogens have promoted us to develop effective agents to antibiotics for combating microbial infection among animals as well as human. In the present study, we isolated a bacteriophage with the ability to cleave V. cyclitrophicus present in the sewage of sea cucumber farms. This bacteriophage was designated as phage vB_VcyS_Vc1 (Vibrio phage Vc1). A one-step growth curve analysis of the phage revealed eclipse and latent periods of 25 and 45 min, respectively, with a burst size of 215 PFU/infected cell. Morphological analysis revealed the phage belongs to family of Siphoviridae. Furthermore, genomic sequencing results revealed a double-stranded DNA containing 44,541 bp with a G + C content of 44.16%. Forty four coding sequences were annotated in the genome, and nineteen of these were associated with a known function. Genes related to virulence and toxins were not detected in the genome. In addition, a prevention experiment conducted in a marine environment demonstrated that the phage increased the survival rate of juvenile sea cucumbers (18 ± 2 g) from 18% to 81% when the sea cucumber were fed with feedstuff containing the freeze-dried phage powder, 58% when the sea cucumber was injected with purified phages (MOI = 10), and 63% when the sea cucumbers were immersed in a suspension containing purified phages. Notably, when the phage provided nearly the same protection to the sea cucumbers as antibiotic when it was fed to the sea cucumbers in the form of freeze-dried powder mixed with feedstuff. Taken together, the results demonstrated that the use of phage to control the infection of V. cyclitrophicus in sea cucumber may be a feasible alternative to antibiotics. The A. japonicus (sea cucumber) is the most profitable aquaculture animal with the highest output as single variety in China, which is of high nutritional value and economic value. In the past decade, as the growth of the market demand, A. japonicus's artificial breeding scale expands rapidly and the sea cucumber industry has become a vigorous sector in China aquaculture. However, with the high density and intensive development model of A. japonicus breeding, the various diseases have resulted in serious economic losses. Skin ulceration syndrome (SUS) is one of the most epidemic and serious diseases that affect sea cucumbers. At present, sanitizer and antibiotics are still commonly used in farms or hatcheries to control the bacterial disease in juvenile sea cucumbers, which resulted in the environment pollution and antibiotic residues. Nowadays, increased appearance of antibiotic resistant phenomenon promoted us to develop effective agents. Hence, alternative strategies to antibiotics should be further developed. This study was the first to monitor the effectiveness of using feedstuff mixed with freeze-dried phage powder as a form of protection for sea cucumber against vibrio infection, and demonstrated the effectiveness of phage in the control of pathogen in aquaculture.