Contaminated agricultural water due to farm run-off for irrigation is an ongoing health issue as polluted produce puts consumers at risk for foodborne illnesses. One potential method to decontaminate irrigation water is the addition of bacteriophage, which is capable of infecting and lysing target bacterial cells, which effectively kills the pathogen. Most bacteriophage can be kept viable by lyophilization, but freeze drying is an expensive, high energy and time consuming process. Conversely, electrospinning is a dehydration process where a potential is used to draw nano-sized fibers from a liquid. This can rapidly dehydrate solutions and effectively preserve the bacteriophage. Thus, we have investigated electrospun water-soluble nanofibers as a more efficient, economical, rapid and scalable process for the dehydration of bacteriophage in solution. Polyvinylpyrrolidone, a water soluble polymer, was used for electrospinning because it is certified as “generally regarded as safe” (GRAS) which is required for use in agricultural water. A storage study showed the effective use of storage media buffers containing sugars and salts which act as protectants during spinning and storage. The loss of bacteriophage infectivity was determined immediately following electrospinning and during storage using agar overlay plating and plaque counting. Furthermore, the morphology and size of the nanofibers were observed under scanning electron microscopy. With the ability to maintain a considerable amount of viable bacteriophage after electrospinning relative to lyophilization, electrospinning could be a potential method for the preservation and storage of bacteriophage.

Electrospun water soluble nanofibers for dehydration and storage of bacteriophage for decontamination of agricultural water

250th National Meeting (2015)

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