Bacteriophages as Sentinel Tools for Assessing and Mitigating Human Health Risks in the Water-Food Chain

The integrity of the water cycle is fundamentally linked to human health, with contaminated water serving as a primary vehicle for the transmission of enteric pathogens and antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) to humans, often through the consumption of contaminated fresh produce. Accurate and actionable risk assessment is therefore critical for protecting public health. Bacteriophages, as obligate parasites of bacteria, offer a powerful and versatile toolkit to address this challenge. They are robust viral indicators of fecal pollution, enabling precise microbial source tracking (MST) to identify the origin of contamination in water sources used for recreation, drinking, and irrigation. Beyond their role as sentinels, phages are intrinsic players in the dynamics of antimicrobial resistance, acting both as reservoirs for ARG dissemination and as potential natural attenuators of resistant bacterial populations.

This Research Topic aims to collate innovative research that leverages bacteriophages to quantify and mitigate direct human health risks associated with waterborne pathogens and ARGs. We welcome contributions that advance the use of phage-based monitoring for real-world public health protection, particularly at the critical interface of water and food safety.

This includes, but is not limited to:

• Phage-Based risk assessment: Studies employing bacteriophages (e.g., crAssphage, F-specific RNA phages) as viral indicators to model and quantify the health risks associated with exposure to contaminated recreational, drinking, or irrigation water.

• Source tracking for public health intervention: Research that uses phage MST to identify specific fecal pollution sources (human, agricultural, wildlife) in watersheds, directly informing targeted remediation and public health policies.

• Phages and antimicrobial resistance in water systems: Investigations into the role of phages as vectors and modulators of ARG transmission in aquatic environments, and their potential as biomarkers for AMR contamination.

• Intervention and mitigation strategies: Applied research exploring phage-based solutions, such as the use of phage cocktails for the biocontrol of pathogens in irrigation water or on food crops, to reduce the microbial load entering the human food chain.

• Methodological advances: Development and validation of novel molecular (e.g., qPCR, metagenomics) and culture-based assays for the detection and quantification of health-relevant phages in complex water matrices.

• Policy and regulation: Analyses of the policy landscape and regulatory hurdles.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Original Research
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Bacteriophages; Water and human health; Microbial Source Tracking (MST); Risk assessment; Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR); Irrigation water safety; Foodborne pathogens; Public health intervention

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.