The guideline specifically concerns bacteriophage products for prophylactic, metaphylactic and/or therapeutic treatment of one or more specific bacterial infection(s) or infectious disease(s) caused by bacteria, or dysbiotic conditions, where efficacy of treatment is linked to the lytic activity of bacteriophages that confers bactericidal activity with specificity for the bacterial strains concerned.
The lytic bacteriophages included in VMPs may be natural, or optimised, for e.g. enhanced potency or broader bacterial host range by classical microbiological in vitro selection methods, or genetic engineering (molecular biology) methods.
Other uses of bacteriophages in veterinary medicine, e.g. use of bacteriophage particles as display platforms for vaccines or use of temperate/integrating bacteriophages to modulate bacterial phenotypes, are outside the scope of this guideline.
Likewise, bacteriophage-derived products (e.g. lysins or other enzymes), or magistral formulae composed of bacteriophage(s) are outside the scope of this guideline.