Pasteurella multocida is a Gram-negative commensal bacterium which resides in the upper respiratory tract of mammals and birds. The organism is responsible for a variety of economically important diseases in a wide range of domestic animal species. It causes fowl cholera of poultry, haemorrhagic septicaemia of cattle and water buffalo, atrophic rhinitis of pigs, and pneumonia of cattle, sheep and pigs. In the present study, the diversity of temperate bacteriophages was examined in 47 P. multocida isolates associated with different types of infection in cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry. The strains represented various capsular serotypes, outer membrane protein types, 16S rRNA types and multilocus sequence types. The phage particles were induced with mitomycin C and characterized morphologically by transmission electron microscopy. Tailed bacteriophages belonging to both Myoviridae and Siphoviridae families were identified in 29 P. multocida isolates. Structural variation was observed in the tails of the Myoviridae phages. Phage DNA was isolated from 18 isolates and restriction endonuclease (RE) analysis identified 10 different RE types. Nucleotide sequence analysis of phage genomic DNA from the same isolates demonstrated that both λ-phage and Mu-like phages are induced in the same isolates of P. multocida. The results also showed that more than one λ- phage and Mu-like phage are induced in the majority of isolates. Nucleotide sequence analysis of λ-phage genomes induced in toxigenic porcine strains of capsular types A and D demonstrated the presence of the toxA gene. ToxA is a virulence gene which encodes P. multocida toxin (PMT) in strains that cause atrophic rhinitis in pigs. From our results we conclude that strains of P. multocida recovered from different host species carry a diverse range of bacteriophages. These phages are likely to play important roles in the evolution and virulence of this important veterinary pathogen.