Vibrio harveyi is a Gram-negative marine bacterium that causes major disease outbreaks and economic losses in aquaculture. Phage therapy has been considered as a potential alternative to antibiotics however, candidate bacteriophages require comprehensive characterization for a safe and practical phage therapy. In this work, a lytic novel jumbo bacteriophage, vB_VhaM_pir03 belonging to the Myoviridae family was isolated and characterized against V. harveyi type strain DSM19623. It had broad host lytic activity against 31 antibiotic-resistant strains of V. harveyi, V. alginolyticus, V. campbellii and V. owensii. Adsorption time of vB_VhaM_pir03 was determined at 6 min while the latent-phase was at 40 min and burst-size at 75 pfu/mL. vB_VhaM_pir03 was able to lyse several host strains at multiplicity-of-infections (MOI) 0.1 to 10. The genome of vB_VhaM_pir03 consists of 286,284 base pairs with 334 predicted open reading frames (ORFs). No virulence, antibiotic resistance, integrase encoding genes and transducing potential were detected. Phylogenetic and phylogenomic analysis showed that vB_VhaM_pir03 is a novel bacteriophage displaying the highest similarity to another jumbo phage, vB_BONAISHI infecting Vibrio coralliilyticus. Experimental phage therapy trial using brine shrimp, Artemia salina infected with V. harveyi demonstrated that vB_VhaM_pir03 was able to significantly reduce mortality 24 h post infection when administered at MOI 0.1 which suggests that it can be an excellent candidate for phage therapy.

Vibrio harveyi is a persistent pathogen responsible for disease outbreaks in aquaculture. We have sequenced the genome of a jumbo Vibrio phage, vB_pir03, isolated in Greece. Here, we present the complete genome of vB_pir03, which consists of 286,284 bp and 336 open reading frames.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a serious and growing global public health threat. Given the grave importance of AMR, the United Nations General Assembly has called for the development and implementation of the national action plans (NAP) on AMR in each of its member countries. The Malaysia NAP was launched in February 2017 with collaborative approach from Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries [Department of Veterinary Services (DVS), Department of Fisheries (DOF), Department of Agriculture (DoA)], Department of Environment, Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Defence Hospitals, Private Healthcare Facilities, Community Pharmacist, The Animal Food Industry and Professional Organisations pertaining to Human And Animal Health) to address and mitigate AMR in respective sectors. This paper presents the aquaculture component of Malaysia’s NAP on AMR lead by the DOF, Malaysia. The objective of this paper is to briefly present the outcomes of activities carried out by the DOF in relation to AMR and AMU in Malaysia which includes: i) the development of the aquaculture component of the NAP; ii) results of the AMU survey; iii) outcome of AMR surveillance; iv) AMR education and awareness; and iv) strengthening governance. The initial AMR results indicate that most of the Escherichia coliisolates were resistant towards erythromycin (90.7 %), cefepime (26.6 %), tetracycline (18.2 %), ampicillin (15 %), and chloramphenicol (10 %). On the other hand, the majority of the Vibrio parahaemolyticus isolates were resistant to ampicillin (72.3 %) followed by erythromycin (10 %), cefotaxime (4 %), and tetracycline (4 %).

Rapid, accurate and scalable sequencing of bacteriophage genomes is critical to advance phage therapy, build phage biobanks and understand phage genomic diversity. Current methods are based on sequencing and assembling complete bacteriophage genomes using short- or long-read technologies. However, current protocols require large DNA input and are cost-prohibitive, which limits their application to phage collections that typically are large and have low biomass. In order to address this, we have developed Plaque-2-seq , a robust and cost-effective workflow for high-throughput phage genome sequencing that will transform the speed and cost of attaining phage genomes. Plaque-2-seq combines low-input transposase-based library preparation, amplification, nanopore sequencing and optimized assembly steps tailored to phage genomes. We applied the method to phages isolated on seven genetically diverse bacterial hosts: Escherichia , Pseudomonas , Synechococcus , Enterococcus , Klebsiella, Serratia and Enterobacter . High-quality genome assemblies were validated using CheckV and benchmarked against previously sequenced phage isolates. Compared to standard Illumina sequencing, Plaque-2-seq offers up to ~5–10-fold savings in sequencing price for individual labs. Furthermore, it substantially decreases the time required to produce a phage genome, once a plaque is obtained. Offering the ability to routinely obtain hundreds of phage genome sequences a week, with minimal hands-on time. Plaque-2-seq enables systematic genomic characterization of phage isolates, facilitating taxonomic classification, for the development of large-scale phage biobanks.