EFSA/ECDC European Union summary report on antimicrobial resistance in zoonotic indicator bacteria from humans, animals and food in 2013
The antimicrobial resistance data on zoonotic and indicator bacteria in 2013, submitted by 28 EU Member States, were jointly analysed by EFSA and ECDC. Resistance in zoonotic Salmonella and Campylobacter species from humans, animals and food, and resistance in indicator Escherichia coli and enterococci, as well as data on meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, in animals and food were addressed. In this year’s report, the same interpretive criteria was used to establish levels of microbiological resistance in humans and animals making the data more comparable.
Executive summary
Campylobacter and Salmonella show significant levels of resistance to common antimicrobials in both humans and animals, leading to decreasing treatment options for some common food-borne infections. Resistance to ciprofloxacin in Campylobacter a critically important antimicrobial was particularly high in humans.
“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.
Multi-drug resistance in Salmonella continues to be high in humans, and the continued spread of multi-drug resistant clones reported in both human and animal Salmonella isolates is of particular concern. Encouragingly, co-resistance to important antimicrobials for both Salmonella and Campylobacter remains low.
The EFSA-ECDC European Union Summary Report on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in zoonotic and indicator bacteria from humans, animals and food in 2013 reports information submitted by 28 EU Member States on antimicrobial resistance and analysed by ECDC and EFSA.
