Fig. 1

Growth curves of selected STEC and Salmonella strains in individual and mixed cultures treated and not treated with phage AKFV33 across MOIs. a O157:H7 R508N; b O26:H11 EC19960464; c O145:NM EC19970355; d S. I 4, [5],12:I- 20104603; e S. Typhimurium ATCC14028; f Mixture of STEC O157:H7 R508N, O26:H11 EC19960464 and O145:NM EC19970355; g Mixture of STEC O157:H7 R508N and Salmonella S. I 4, [5],12:I- 20104603 and S. Typhimurium ATCC14028. Bars present standard deviations. Asterisks^*, ^** and ^*** indicate a statistical difference of OD_600nm value within same sampling time between phage-treated and non-treated individual or mixed culture at P < 0.05, P < 0.01 and P < 0.001, respectively. For (f) and (g), ^*** indicates significance evident in all phage-treated 3 pathogen mixtures; For (g), at 6 h, ns indicates OD_600nm value did not differ between phage-treated and non-treated 2 mixture of S. I 4, [5],12:I- + O157:H7, whereas ^* and ^**, respectively, indicate OD_600nm value differed between phage-treated and non-treated mixtures of S. Typhimurium + O157:H7 and mixtures of 3 pathogenic bacteria