Antimicrobials Alternatives for the Prevention and Treatment of Veterinary Infectious Diseases

For decades, it has become a common practice to use subtherapeutic levels of antibiotics in the feed of food-producing animals to prevent diseases and increase the productivity of modern livestock. Misuse of these antibiotics has led to the development of resistance of microorganisms against these antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance is expected to become a major healthcare problem in the 21st century. As the effectiveness of these important drugs decreases and the discovery of new antibiotics has become stagnant. The search for alternative therapies in this situation could be a very necessary solution. Antibacterial oligonucleotides may have the lowest irreversible drug resistance while providing the broadest spectrum of activity. Bacteriophages are more likely to develop resistance, but are indefatigable, inexpensive, and characterized by removing biofilm-related infections. Monoclonal antibodies may not have access to these refractory bacteria, but these reagents have the unique ability to neutralize exotoxins and other spreading virulence factors. Other alternatives, such as immune modulators, plant extracts, nanotechnology, and computational approaches may also play an important role in the prevention and treatment of infections. Starting treatment for the next generation of infectious diseases requires a deeper understanding to unleash these promising therapies.

This research topic focuses on the development, working mechanism, applications, and potentials of the alternative therapeutic approaches such as immune modulators, bacteriophages, probiotic, prebiotic, symbiotic, plant extracts, antimicrobial peptides, inhibitors targeting pathogenicity pathogenicity-targeted inhibitors (determination of bacterial quorum, biofilms, toxicity, and virulence), nanotechnology-based antimicrobial approaches and computational modeling to eliminate microorganisms.

We welcome Mini-Reviews, full-length Reviews, and Original Research papers. Our Research Topic includes, but is not necessarily limited to:

• Mechanisms of action of TLRs and NLRs Agonists as Immunostimulants

• To investigate the role of antimicrobial Peptides and antibiofilm peptides

• Role of probiotic, prebiotic, and synbiotics

• Effectiveness of antibodies and lysins

• Reversal of drug resistance using efflux pump inhibitors

• Combinations of different drugs as a therapeutic approach

• Herbal therapies and their mechanism to treat different veterinary infectious diseases

• Nanotechnology-based therapeutic approaches for the treatment of veterinary infectious diseases

• Computational modeling for the developments of new drugs for the treatment of veterinary infectious diseases