| Summary: | <i>Vibrio coralliilyticus</i> is one of the major pathogens causing mass mortality in marine bivalve larvae aquaculture. To prevent and control <i>Vibrio</i> spp. infections in marine bivalve hatcheries, various antibiotics are overused, resulting in environmental pollution and the creation of multi-drug-resistant strains. Therefore, research on the development of antibiotic substitutes is required. In this study, we isolated two bacteriophages (phages) that specifically infected pathogenic <i>V. coralliilyticus</i> from an oyster hatchery and designated them as pVco-5 and pVco-7. Both phages were classified as <i>Podoviridae</i> and were stable over a wide range of temperatures (4–37 °C) and at pH 7.0–9.0. Thus, both phages were suitable for application under the environmental conditions of an oyster hatchery. The two phages showed confirmed significant bactericidal efficacy against pathogenic <i>V. coralliilyticus</i> in an in vitro test. In the in vivo experiment, the phage pre-treated groups of Pacific oyster larvae showed significantly lower mortality against <i>V. coralliilyticus</i> infection than untreated control larvae. The results of the present study suggest that both phages could be used in the artificial marine bivalve seedling industry; not only to prevent pathogenic <i>V. coralliilyticus</i> infection, but also to reduce antibiotic overuse.
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