The results presented here strongly suggest that the CHOED phage
can protect Atlantic salmon against infection by the PF4 strain of
V. anguillarum. The phage can most likely infect the bacteria in the
water as soon as it is added to the tank, because 3 days post-infection,
the bacteria was undetectable in the water (b103 CFU/mL on TCBS
plates); the phage, however, was still present, even 7 days postinfection.
However, because previous work has shown that phages
can enter the internal tissues of fish after ingestion (Verner-Jeffreys et
al., 2007), bacterial colonization could also have begun inside the fish.