TABLE 1.

Overview of the studied experimental delivery methods.

Exp.	Phage delivery method	Administered phage titer	Administration time	Fish		Bacterial infection dose (IP∗) (CFU fish–1)
				Weight (g)	Total n. (n. per replicate)
A	Phage-sprayed feed	1.6 × 108 ± 2.5 × 107 PFU g–1 b	Continuous feeding started 12 days before IP*	1.9 (±0.7)c	895 (55 ± 4)d	1.0 × 104
	Phage-immobilized feed	8.3 × 107 ± 4.8 × 107 PFU g–1 b
	Control feeda	0 ± 0 PFU g–1 b
B	Bath	I. ∼106 PFU ml–1 II. ∼106 PFU ml–1 III. ∼105 PFU ml–1	I. 48 h after IP* (1 h 30 min); II. One (1 h 30 min) and III. two weeks (3 h 30 min) after 1st bath	2–3	125 (31 ± 1) d	1.0 × 105
	Control bath	I. 0 PFU ml–1 II. 0 PFU ml–1 III. 0 PFU ml–1
C	IP injection	1.7 × 108 PFU fish–1	3 days after IP*	∼7	120 (20 ± 0)d	1.7 × 107
	Control IP injection	0 PFU fish–1

*IP, bacterial intraperitoneal injection. ^aNon-treated commercial feed from the same batch as the phage-treated feed types. ^bAverage and standard deviation (n = 3). ^cAverage weight of fish sampled after 10 days of phage feed prophylaxis (standard deviation in the parenthesis; n = 15). ^dAverage number of fish per aquaria and standard deviation in the parenthesis.