Treatment options for some of the most common food-borne infections are decreasing, as types of bacteria (called ‘isolates’) continue to show resistance to antimicrobial drugs. For example, multi-drug resistant isolates of Salmonella continue to spread across Europe. Also, high resistance to the antimicrobial ciprofloxacin in Campylobacter isolates in both humans and animals has been reported in some Member States. Encouragingly, co-resistance to critically important antimicrobials for both bacteria remains low. These are some the findings of the latest EFSA-ECDC European Union Summary Report on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in zoonotic and indicator bacteria from humans, animals and food, which analyses data from 2013.
For the first time, EFSA and ECDC have used similar criteria to interpret data. “Findings in antimicrobial resistance in humans, animals and foods are now more comparable. This is a step forward in the fight against antimicrobial resistance”, said Marta Hugas, Acting Head of EFSA’s Risk Assessment and Scientific Assistance Department.
“The high levels of resistance to fluoroquinolones observed in Campylobacter isolates from both humans and broilers are of concern considering that a large proportion of human Campylobacter infections come from handling, preparation and consumption of broiler meat. Such high resistance levels reduce the effective treatment options for severe human Campylobacter infections”, said Mike Catchpole, Chief Scientist at ECDC.
FoodWorld 