This article summarises the activities of the Bacterial Viruses Subcommittee of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses for the period of March 2021−March 2022. We provide an overview of the new taxa proposed in 2021, approved by the Executive Committee, and ratified by vote in 2022. Significant changes to the taxonomy of bacterial viruses were introduced: the paraphyletic morphological families Podoviridae, Siphoviridae, and Myoviridae as well as the order Caudovirales were abolished, and a binomial system of nomenclature for species was established. In addition, one order, 22 families, 30 subfamilies, 321 genera, and 862 species were newly created, promoted, or moved.

In the recent years, multidrug-resistant bacteria have become a global threat, and phage therapy may to be used as an alternative to antibiotics or, at least, as a supplementary approach to treatment of some bacterial infections. Here, we describe the results of bacteriophage application in clinical practice for the treatment of localized infections in wounds, burns, and trophic ulcers, including diabetic foot ulcers. This mini-review includes data from various studies available in English, as well as serial case reports published in Russian scientific literature (with, at least, abstracts accessible in English). Since, it would be impossible to describe all historical Russian publications; we focused on publications included clear data on dosage and rout of phage administration.

Implant-associated infections are the most costly problem in modern orthopedics due to the continued increase in the occurrence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains that requires the development of new effective antimicrobials. A non-randomized, prospective, open-label, with historical control study on the use of combined phage/antibiotic therapy of periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) was carried out. Forty-five adult patients with deep PJI of the hip joint were involved in the study, with a 12-month follow-up after one-stage revision surgery. Patients from a prospective study group (SG, n = 23) were treated with specific phage preparation and etiotropic antibiotics, whereas patients from a retrospective comparator group (CG, n = 22) received antibiotics only. The rate of PJI relapses in the SG was eight times less than that in the CG: one case (4.5%) versus eight cases (36.4%), p = 0.021. The response rate to treatment was 95.5% (95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.7511–0.9976) in the SG and only 63.6% (95% CI = 0.4083–0.8198) in the CG. The odds ratio for PJI relapse in patients of the SG was 0.083 (95% CI = 0.009–0.742), which was almost 12 times lower than that in the CG. The obtained results support the efficacy of the combined phage-antibiotic treatment of PJI.

In this article, we – the Bacterial Viruses Subcommittee and the Archaeal Viruses Subcommittee of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) – summarise the results of our activities for the period March 2020 – March 2021. We report the division of the former Bacterial and Archaeal Viruses Subcommittee in two separate Subcommittees, welcome new members, a new Subcommittee Chair and Vice Chair, and give an overview of the new taxa that were proposed in 2020, approved by the Executive Committee and ratified by vote in 2021. In particular, a new realm, three orders, 15 families, 31 subfamilies, 734 genera and 1845 species were newly created or redefined (moved/promoted).