A novel alternative to the use of antimicrobials: Bacteriophages for combating antimicrobial resistance.

Abstract

The rapid emergence of antimicrobial resistance poses a serious challenge to both human and veterinary medicine highlighting the urgent need to develop alternative antimicrobial strategies. Phage therapy has regained attention as a promising approach. However, its application in veterinary practice remains relatively limited. Most existing literature reviews focus on natural phage therapy or the development of individual technologies, and there is a lack of comprehensive analysis regarding the clinical translation of next-generation phage technologies-which have advanced rapidly in recent years-into veterinary medicine. This literature review provides a systematic review of the research progress on phages as an alternative to antimicrobial drugs in the veterinary field, with a particular emphasis on application characteristics, treatment strategies, and challenges across different animal species and infection scenarios. It systematically integrates the next-generation technologies that have driven the recent advancement of phage therapy, elucidating their potential applications in veterinary infection prevention and control from three aspects: (i) enhancing antimicrobial efficacy, (ii) expanding the types of antimicrobial formulations, and (iii) optimizing in vivo delivery performance. This provides a new perspective for the systematic integration and clinical translation of next-generation phage technologies in the veterinary field. Building on this foundation, the article further proposes an artificial intelligence-based precision phage therapy strategy. By integrating pathogen identification, intelligent phage matching, rational phage design, and dynamic optimization of the treatment process, this approach offers new insights into achieving the precise, standardized, and large-scale application of phage therapy in veterinary medicine.