Enemy of my enemy is my friend: How to use bacteria’s worst nightmare to control them

Bacteria are well known contaminants in many types of bioprocesses. Usually the method of choice to prevent them is use of antibiotics or chemicals selectively eliminating some groups of bacteria. However, in many cases there is a limited group of bacterial species contaminating given bioprocess. One of well known examples is lactic acid bacteria contaminating yeast fermentations, but also other types of bioprocesses can easily be contaminated. As contaminations usually are caused repetitively in given facility by one or few bacterial species, it is relatively easy to select phages active against contaminants. Bacteriophages in such situation constitute an economic alternative, especially in large scale, to chemical contamination prevention. Even small concentration of phages prove to be successful in eradication of contaminating bacteria. During presentation some results and future prospects in this emerging field of antibacterial treatment in bioprocesses will be presented.