Mmmm, Phage Viruses

Yummy.

If you want to get rid of a pest, why not use another pest to plague it?

That's the approach approved last week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which will for the first time allow the use of bacteria-eating viruses as additives to foods.

From now on, these viruses -- known as "bacteriophage," or phage -- can be sprayed on ready-to-eat cold cuts and luncheon meats by manufacturers to prevent listeriosis, the most deadly of all foodborne illnesses.

The FDA spent four years evaluating the safety and effectiveness of the "cocktail" of several phage at the request of Intralytix Inc., a Baltimore, Md., biotechnology company. In presenting its petition, Intralytix referred the government to more than 20 studies documenting the power of viruses to fight infection, many of them performed in Russian and Eastern Bloc countries where phage therapies have long been popular in treating certain infections.

Intralytix also conducted studies of its own, trying out its phage mixture (consisting of six different viruses that attack the food-poisoning bacterium Listeria ) on more than 10 different kinds of deli meats, including sliced turkey, roast beef, bologna, chicken and even raw hot dogs, and found that it killed all strains of Listeria.

Phage are everywhere - in the water, soil and human intestines and mucus membranes. Experts say the virus is the most abundant life form on Earth. They are far tinier than bacteria: If you stacked every one of them end to end, you would have to travel at the speed of light for 200 light years to get to the top of the stack, said Fischetti, who is a consultant to a biopharmaceutical company exploring the use of phage in treating anthrax. About 10 million commonly reside in a single milliliter of unpolluted water, he said.

UPDATE: [Johnny M. Coldcuts]

"From now on, these viruses -- known as "bacteriophage," or phage -- can be sprayed on ready-to-eat cold cuts and luncheon meats

Ain't nobody sprayin' nothing on me.

I'm jus' sayin'.

posted by LauraW. at 11:09 PM

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