On the 20th anniversary of the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) program, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) had positive trends to report on antimicrobial resistance in the United States.
The 2015 NARMS Integrated Report, released on Monday, features new interactive data displays, more genetic data from collected isolates, and promising decreases in antimicrobial resistance among the bacteria tested (Salmonella, Campylobacter, generic Escherichia coli, and Enterococcus). Samples are collected for antimicrobial susceptibility testing from human clinical cases, food-animal cecal samples, Pathogen Reduction/ Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (PR/HACCP) testing at slaughter, and retail meat.
Encouraging trends included the following:
- A continued decline in Salmonella recovery in retail chicken meat to the lowest levels in the 14 years of NARMS retail meat sampling to 6.1 percent in 2015;
- Continued declines in Salmonella, Campylobacter, and E. coli recovery in retail meat; and,
- A decline in ceftriaxone resistance in Salmonella and E. coli in retail chicken meat samples.
The report also notes areas that are of potential concern that the agencies will continue to follow, including:
- An increase in multi-drug resistance from 9 percent to 12 percent of human Salmonella isolates; and,
- An increase in erythromycin resistance in Campylobacter coli from 2011 and 2015 in isolates from humans (2.7 percent to 12.7 percent), chicken carcasses (3.4 percent to 12.8 percent), and retail chicken (5.2 percent to 12.7 percent).
A link to the full 2015 NARMS Integrated Report may be found here.
