Maximizing the biocontrol potential of bacteriophages: A call for critically-needed field research

Bacteriophages are viruses capable of infecting bacterial cells. Lytic phages, which infect and kill bacterial cells, are of interest in disease management in human, animal, and plant systems. In plant pathology, the biocontrol of bacterial diseases is of heightened interest because of the lack of efficacious options in many pathosystems. Numerous papers have been published in the past few decades on phage that target plant pathogenic bacteria, and a large majority of these have been focused on phage isolation and characteristics that highlight the promise and potential of phage as biocontrol agents. In contrast, relatively few of these papers have reported results from studies conducted in the field. Of the recent papers (2022-2025) reporting field studies, disease efficacy results are inconsistent. We argue that field studies should be an essential component of phage biocontrol research to understand how to best utilize and deploy phages to generate consistently effective disease management.