In the ongoing war against pathogens in meat and poultry plants, bacteriophages are becoming a potentially potent weapon.
A bacteriophage, also called a phage, is a type of virus that attacks only bacteria and uses the bacteria to reproduce by injecting its DNA into bacterial cells. The infection destroys the cell while using the biological machinery of the bacteria for reproduction. Phages also can incorporate their nucleic acid into the chromosome of the host cell and replicate it as a unit without destroying the cell.