The „golden age” of antibiotics seems to be coming to an end. The effect of
uncontrolled distribution of chemotherapeutic agents in animal production is
the commonly growing phenomenon of dramatic drug resistance in bacterial
populations.
At the end of the 20th century, the repeated failures to effectively control of
bacterial infections have initiated the introduction of legislative procedures to
limit the use of antibiotics, especially as feed additives in animals. The next step
was the developing of alternative for antibiotics to control bacteria, with particular
emphasis on natural substances as extracts and oils obtained from plants, which
have been used against Gram – positive and Gram – negative bacteria, as well as
Candida fungi. These are cationic peptides stabilized by cysteine (defensins and
cathelicidins) – identified both in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Other examples are
the nanoparticles, especially silver, gold or platinum. The use of bacteriophages as
natural anti-bacterial agents, which bactericidal effect has been demonstrated in
numerous experimental therapies in humans and animals, also deserves special
emphasis. In this article scientific approaches to novel antibacterial therapies were
presented and briefly discussed. As a consequence of the threat of widespread
and global growth of multi-resistant bacteria there is a strong need to develop
of alternative for antibiotics in elimination of multidrug resistant pathogens