A team of researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina and the Charleston Veterans Administration Medical Center Research Service found no conclusive evidence of a definitive link between use of antibiotics in food animals and emergence of drug-resistant Campylobacter. The team, consisting of veterinary and nutrition scientists and an infectious disease physician, reviewed published literature for evidence of a relationship between antibiotic use in agricultural animals and drug-resistant foodborne Campylobacter infections in humans, commonly known as campylobacteriosis.
The study, funded by the Animal Health institute, included 195 articles in the United States, Canada and Denmark over the past five years and has been published in the Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition [volume 56, issue 13] . Animals included in the reviewed studies were chicken, turkeys, pigs, beef cattle, and dairy cows.The overall prevalence of Campylobacter and drug resistance found in the systematic review aligns with recent National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) reports.
“There is still much more research to be done. The agriculture and health care industries, along with the scientific community and government regulatory agencies, must work collaboratively with the human health community in order to ensure safe, humane, and affordable food sources to the public,” said lead scientist M.A. McCrackin, D.V.M., Ph.D.
