A new report from the British government shows increasing antibiotic resistance in bacteria commonly found in retail poultry.

The report from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) found that resistance to fluoroquinolone antibiotics have increased steadily since 2001 in Campylobacter jejuni isolates from UK-produced poultry meat samples (espeically chicken and turkey). While resistance to ciproflaxin and nalidixic acid were observed in 15% and 22% of poultry isolates in 2011, half of all isolates showed resistance to both drugs in 2014-2015.

But the FSA review, which aimed to assess the prevalence of antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacteria in retail pork, poultry meat, dairy products, seafood, and fresh produce in the country, found the overall data for drug resistance levels in British-produced food were limited, a finding the report's authors say highlights the need for better AMR surveillance in the food chain. In particular, data were lacking for milk and dairy products, seafood, and fresh produce.

Concerns about Campylobacter

Campylobacter is a common cause of foodborne disease that people can get from eating raw or undercooked meat, especially poultry. C jejuni and C coli, the most common causes of Campylobacter infection, sicken roughly 280,000 people in the United Kingdom each year. Symptoms include abdominal pain and severe diarrhea.

According to the FSA, four of five UK cases of food-related Campylobacter illness come from contaminated poultry. In 2015, an FSA survey found that 73% of chicken sold at UK supermarkets tested positive for the presence of Campylobacter. The FSA has launched a campaign aimed at reducing the prevalence of the pathogen in poultry.

In addition to rising resistance to ciproflaxin and nalidixic acid, which are among the drugs used to treat severe Campylobacter infections, the FSA report found that the prevalence of multidrug-resistant C jejuni isolates in retail chicken has also risen sharply, climbing from 19.1% in 2008 to 43.4% in 2014-2015.

The review, which focused on the foodborne pathogens Campylobacter and Salmonella and the commensal bacteria Enterococcus faecalis, E faecium, and Escherichia coli, examined all the scientific literature published from 1999 to 2016 on resistance levels in pork, poultry meat, dairy products, seafood, and fresh produce sold at the retail level. The agency chose to focus on the retail level, the authors said, because that is considered to be the point where consumers are most likely to be exposed to antibiotic-resistant bacteria that originate in the food chain.

Overall, 304 studies were included in the review, with most covering AMR bacteria in poultry and pork. Resistance to beta-lactams, fluoroquinolones, macrolides, and polymixins was assessed, along with the occurrence of multidrug resistance.

Limited data for other food

The authors found that, with exception of poultry, however, the scientific evidence available for resistance levels in British-produced food was so limited that no patterns or trends could be identified. This was particularly true for dairy products, shellfish, and fresh produce, which the authors note have been associated with a growing number of foodborne illness outbreaks in the country.

And while the surveillance data in countries that export food to the United Kingdom were more extensive, especially the data from northern European countries, it was still difficult to identify discernable trends.

The report concludes that further efforts should be made to develop surveillance programs that will identify trends in the prevalence of AMR bacteria in both British-produced and imported food, so that consumers have a better understanding of the risk. The authors also recommend that surveillance programs should include a core set of relevant antibiotics for prospective susceptibility testing in the food chain.

The report, published last week, was released a few days ahead of an international meeting on food safety and AMR that begins today in London. The meeting of the Codex Alimentarius, a global food standards body with more than 180 members, aims to identify ways to address the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals.

See also:

Nov 25 FSA report