**1. Introduction**

Bacteriophages (here in after called phages are viruses that can infect a bacteria and replicate within it) are completely alien to the routine therapeutic regimens in both veterinary and human medical practices in Africa, and where phage therapies have been instituted they are mainly experimental. Phage therapy has shown to be an ecologically sustainable tool in the control of bacterial infection; scientific researches places phages to be superiorly bactericidal specific, efficacious and cost effective when compared to antibiotics and interestingly it has been proven to inhibit biofilm formation in pathogenic bacteria [1–3], customarily the production

of biofilms by bacterial cells significantly increases their resistance to antimicrobials as compared to what is normally seen by the same cells being planktonic [4]. In Africa, the indiscriminate use of antimicrobials for treatment of salmonellosis in both human medical and veterinary practices has allowed for the proliferation of multidrug resistant (MDR) determinants and the sharing of antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) between serovars of *Salmonellae* and other bacteria population, and on a continent where Poverty, human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), Malaria, Tuberculosis and other immunocompromising diseases are prevalent, the impact of MDR salmonellosis is severe [5]. It has become pertinent that alternative strategies for control of salmonellosis and *Salmonella* associated infections be adopted especially where MDR strains of *Salmonellae* persist. *Salmonella Kentucky* (*S. Kentucky*) is amongst the most ubiquitous *Salmonella* serovar identified on the African continent in the present decade and MDR strains pose significant health risk and a threat to the livestock production, livestock trade and food industry [5]. Several MDR strains have been isolated in most regions of the continent and the abusive use of antibiotics has only enhanced its mutative MDR tendencies and acquisition of ARGs between serovars and other non-genera of *Salmonella*. The institution of phages in the treatment of salmonellosis has shown promising results because of their very low transduction frequencies in the transmission of ARGs of *Salmonella* spp. [6], they exist everywhere in the environment and are natural, economically sustainable, nontoxic and some phages have shown broad activity against numerous serovars of MDR *Salmonella* spp. [7, 8]. Felix-O1 and SE13 are examples of *Salmonella* phages with broad serovar capacities; Felix-O1, a virulent phage was proven to infect 98.2% of all *Salmonella* strain and SE13 was capable of lysing 83.6% of *Salmonella* strain it was tested with [7, 8]. While researches on the use of phages for the treatments of *S. Kentucky* in Africa are scarce, [9] reported an effective use of phage in the reduction of *S. Kentucky* colonization in different broiler farms in Egypt. Phage–host interactions through the mechanism of horizontal gene transfer have contributed significantly to genetic flux vastly responsible for the acquisition and dissemination of important bacterial phenotypes, such as enhanced colonization of the human or animal gut epithelium, AMR and toxin production [10, 11]. Thus, the identification and careful selection of phages devoid of genetic elements that could pose risk to human and animal health is critical to biocontrol applications [12]. This review proposes to highlight challenges that may arise in the institution of phages as a strategic non-antibiotic tool for the control *S*. *Kentucky* and repertoire of its ARGs without prior studies on their genetic make-up.
