Earthworms, especially Eisenia andrei, are cultivated for a variety of purposes including waste disposal and compost production. In this study, bacteria from earthworm gut were cultured and the dominant species identified. Subsequently, we isolated bacteriophages able to lyse the isolated gut bacteria. Two dominant genera of gut bacteria, Aeromonas sp. and Citrobacter sp. were identified by using MALDI-TOF MS analysis and a library was constructed to find lytic phages. Phage EF1 showed lytic activity for C. freundii and two Citrobacter isolates, C. braakii and C. murliniae. These 3 species have similar sensitivities to EF1. Several aspects of the life cycle of EF1 were investigated by using C. freundii under optimal growth conditions. EF1 infects C. freundii with a moderate latent period, approximately 25 min, and a large burst size averaging 5 × 109 per infected cell. Moreover, the antimicrobial activity of EF1 was well maintained under diverse conditions including a broad temperature range of 40°C to 50°C and a wide pH range of 4 to 11. In conclusion, the results indicate that earthworm casting contain a wide range of bacteria species, for which there are various corresponding bacteriophages.

Toxicity of polymer, Alum, Zeolite, Loess, Koalinite and Chitosan on earthworm and the effects of sewage sludges coagulated by several mixtures of those coagulants on the population growth of earthworm Eisenia andrei were evaluated. Under the concentration of 20,000 mg/L of Zeolite, Loess and Kaolinite, and under 1,000 mg/L of Chitosan were there no acute toxicities on earthworms. The concentration of Polymer over 160 mg/L showed acute toxicity upon earthworm, but the concentration under 80 mg/L showed no toxicity. The concentration of Alum over 125 mg/L showed acute toxicity. The mixture of ‘Polymer 80 mg/L + Kaolinite 500 mg/L + Chitosan 20 mg/L’ had higher coagulating efficiency than the ‘Polymer 80 mg/L + Kaolinite 500 mg/L’ on sewage sludge, And the sewage sludge coagulated by former mixture induced higher growth rate of earthworm population than that coagulated by latter mixture when the sewage sludges were supplied to earthworms.