European Union Summary Report on antimicrobial resistance in zoonotic and indicator bacteria from humans, animals and food 2012 published.

On 25 March, EFSA and ECDC jointly published 'The European Union Summary Report on antimicrobial resistance in zoonotic and indicator bacteria from humans, animals and food 2012' [1]. The report features Salmonella, Campylobacter, E. coli indicator bacteria and Staphyloccus aureus. Salmonella and Campylobacter are the most common causes of zoonotic foodborne infections. According to the report, antimicrobial resistance was detected commonly in isolates from human cases as well as from food-producing animals and food in the European Union (EU). Almost half of the isolates from clinical cases were resistant to at least one antimicrobial and 28.9% were multidrug-resistant. Levels of clinical resistance in Salmonella spp. isolates from humans to critically important antimicro-bials in human medicine, such as cefotaxime and ciprofloxacin, were relatively low, and co-resistance across the countries that submitted data was very low. Salmonella spp. isolates of food and animal origin from fattening turkeys, broiler meat, turkeys and broilers of Gallus gallus, showed the highest resistance to cipro-floxacin varying from 46.0 % to 86.2 % in the reporting countries. In Campylobacter spp. isolates from human cases, clinical resistance to common antimicrobials was frequently detected. Very high proportions of Campylobacter spp. isolates (47.4% EU average) were resistant to cipro-floxacin, with increasing trends observed in several countries. High to extremely high resistance to fluoro-quinolones was also observed in Campylobacter isolates of food and animal origin such as Gallus gallus and broiler meat, pigs and cattle (ranging from 32.0 % in isolates from pigs to 82.7 % in isolates from broiler meat). Among indicator (commensal) E. coli isolates from animals , resistance to ampicillin, streptomycin sulfona-mides and tetracyclines, was commonly reported in Gallus gallus and pigs (29.5 %–54.7 %) and levels were lower in cattle (24.5 %–30.6 %). Resistance to cipro-floxacin and nalidixic acid was highest among E. coli isolates from Gallus gallus and lower in pigs and cattle. Antimicrobial resistance in humans was determined using clinical breakpoints, whereas epidemiological cutoff values (ECOFFs) were used to interpret the food and animal data. The use of ECOFFs aims to detect early resistance development to enable actions to be taken before the bacteria become impossible to treat. The use of different types of interpretive criteria limits the direct comparison of resistance data obtained for humans and food/animals. The levels of clinical resistance to antimicrobials in humans showed a great variability across participating countries, partly due to the use of different methods and criteria for …