Citrobacter infections are becoming an increasingly significant health problem in aquaculture in South-Eastern countries. The objective of this study was to isolate and evaluate the potential of lytic bacteriophages against Citrobacter infections. TEM analysis revealed that the isolated phages Citrophage MRM19 and Citrophage MRM57 were identified to be Siphovirus and Podovirus family of the order Caudovirales. The phage life-cycle studies showed that Citrophage MRM19 had an adsorption time of 18 ± 1 min and a latency period of 25 ± 3 min with burst size of 110 ± 20 phages/infected cell and Citrophage MRM57 had an adsorption time of 15 ± 1 min and a latency period of 25 ± 2 min with burst size of 50 ± 5 phages/infected cell. In vitro studies indicated that the bacterial load was reduced by 5 and 7 log units within 12 h by Citrophage MRM19 and Citrophage MRM57. The in vivo efficacy of the phages was studied using zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a model organism in low-scale tanks. The study unveiled that the use of phages increased the survival up to 17%, 23%, and 26% in the case of Citrophage MRM19, Citrophage MRM57, and phage cocktail treatment, respectively. Our study indicated that bacteriophages are suitable biocontrol agents against Citrobacter spp. especially in aquaculture industry.

在东南部国家，水产养殖中柠檬酸杆菌感染正成为日益严重的健康问题。这项研究的目的是分离和评估溶解性噬菌体对柠檬酸杆菌感染的潜力。TEM分析表明，分离出噬菌体Citrophage MRM19和Citrophage MRM57被鉴定为Siphovirus和Podovirus家庭的顺序有尾噬菌体目。噬菌体生命周期研究表明，Citrophage MRM19的吸附时间为18±1分钟，潜伏期为25±3 min，爆发大小为110±20噬菌体/感染细胞和CitrophageMRM57的吸附时间为15±1分钟，潜伏期为25±2分钟，破裂大小为50±5个噬菌体/感染细胞。体外研究表明，Citrophage MRM19和Citrophage MRM57在12小时内将细菌载量降低了5和7 log个单位。在体内使用斑马鱼（噬菌体的功效进行了研究斑马鱼），为在低量程罐的模型生物。该研究表明，使用噬菌体可将Citrophage MRM19，Citrophage MRM57和噬菌体鸡尾酒治疗的生存率分别提高17％，23％和26％。我们的研究表明，噬菌体是针对柠檬杆菌属 特别是在水产养殖业。