Prospects for therapeutic alternatives to antimicrobials on farms

Abstract

Principles, constraints and research questions related to several perspectives of therapeutic alternatives to antimicrobials are presented. Different approaches are not new such as phytotherapy and phagotherapy that relies on the lytic properties of phages infecting bacteria, but their use in practice would require further research on quality, efficacy and security of the products, as well as regulatory developments. Other approaches are more recent and require further research before considering their application in the field. This is the case for host defence peptides, molecules of innate immunity that are mainly produced by epithelial cells and phagocytes; they have large spectrum antimicrobial properties and immunity regulation capacity. There are few industrial developments due to technical problems despite a high number of candidates. Another approach concerns quorum sensing, based on signalling molecules produced by bacteria, that allows coordinated changes of the bacteria properties above a certain threshold, such as producing virulent factors or biofilms. Quorum quenching might allow regulating these properties.