Isolation and characterization of three novel Acinetobacter baumannii phages from Beninese hospital wastewater

Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic pathogen that is mostly associated with hospital-acquired infections. The rapid emergence of multi- and pan-drug-resistant Acinetobacter strains poses an increasing challenge in hospitals. Phage therapy offers one treatment option for infections caused by A. baumannii . We isolated three phages from Beninese hospital wastewater – fBenAci001, fBenAci002, and fBenAci003 – that infected clinical A. baumannii strains from Finnish patients. Phylogenetic analysis showed that these phages resemble phages of the genus Friunavirus , family Autographiviridae. The isolated phages meet the requirements set for phages used for phage therapy. However, they were found to have a narrow host range, which may limit their therapeutic use.