Bacteriophage therapy: an emerging paradigm in fish disease management

Remarkable research attention has been rekindled on bacteriophage therapy against pathogenic bacterial infections of aquaculture as phages are the widespread, natural viral predators of bacteria, are non-toxic, and highly host specific. Also, the use of phage cocktails improves the target specificity of phage therapy, simultaneously eliminating the problem of phage resistance that may accompany monophage therapy. The application of phages is rapid and inexpensive and should be explored further for the prevention and control of fish bacterial pathogens. This review discusses the phage therapy potential, mode of applications, recent developments, advantages, risks involved, and challenges in the success and popularization of phage-based treastments, and discusses their outlook as novel biosensing tools and coupling with nanobubbles for improved fish health.