Isolation and anti-Escherichia coli biofilm activity of lytic bacteriophages isolated from water environment in vitro

Bacterial biofilms have emerged from contamination and infection problems in the medical, industrial and in the food and beverage processing. Bacteriophages are potential as biocontrol agents against bacterial biofilms as they specifically prevent or destroy the bacterial biofilm formation. The use of bacteriophages is safe from humans and animals as they only infect specific bacteria in specific pathways and have non-toxic properties to humans and animals. The objective of this study was to isolates and to know anti-Escherichia coli biofilm activity of lytic bacteriophages from the water environment in vitro. Seven Escherichia coli bacteriophages were isolated from different water sources. These bacteriophages E. coli were analyzed to know its potential for prevention, inhibition or degradation against E. coli biofilm in vitro. Data were analyzed using Minitab response surface. The results reveal that all seven E. coli bacteriophages showed that they were potential to prevent, inhibit and degrade E. coli biofilm in vitro. However, only E. coli IV phage has the highest activity to prevent E. coli biofilm formation by 40% using filtrate dilution 10³-10⁵ incubated for 10-28 hours. The highest biofilm inhibition activity was shown by E. coli I phage at 40% using filtrate dilution 10⁻² and 10⁻⁴ incubated for 48-60 hours. Meanwhile, the highest biofilm degradation activity, 100%, was achieved by E. coli III phage and E. coli IV phage using filtrate dilution 10³-10⁵ and 10²-10⁵ incubated for 10-15 hours and 10-31 hours, respectively. Further study is needed to reveal the bacteriophages identity and to optimize the number of bacteriophages particles which can be used efficiently and effectively to control E. coli biofilm.