Rather than administering a bacteriophage via oral gavage,
Carvalho et al. (2010) incorporated Campylobacter specific bacteriophage
into dry poultry feed, a more practical approach for live
poultry farms. C. jejuni and C. coli strains were fed to one day old chicks. The bacteria were allowed to colonize the gut for one week
prior to inoculation with bacteriophage. The birds were administered
bacteriophage in two treatment groups: one group was given
a bacteriophage gavage at a concentration of 106 PFU/ml and the
other group was given 45 g of feed with 1.5 107 PFU/1.5 ml SM
buffer. After seven days, the chickens that received the bacteriophage
in their feed had a 2 Log10 reduction of Campylobacter when
compared to the control group, while the gavage administered
bacteriophage maintained a 1.7 Log10 reduction against the control,
illustrating the possibility of implementing bacteriophage into
poultry feed. However, 6% of the recovered Campylobacter strains
were phage resistant when previously susceptible.