Food Protection Trends - January/February 2018 - 74

exceptions in broilers. In addition, the introduction of the
revised panels of antimicrobials to be tested in the new
legislation, which include colistin, was timely, preceding
recent reports of emergence of transferable colistin and
erythromycin resistance in Asia in 2015. Overall, resistance
to colistin was observed at low levels in all animal species.
To be noted is the great variability of the levels of
resistance in the different EU Member States. The last
EUSR-AMR published (6) showed that the proportion of
isolates of indicator E. coli from fattening pigs that are fully
susceptible to all antimicrobials tested tend to decrease as
one moves from Northern to Southern European countries
(Fig. 1). This may reflect different levels in the consumption
of antimicrobials across countries.
In the past few years, the first data became available in
relation to presumptive ESBL-/AmpC-/carbapenemase
production in Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli.
Occurrence of ESBL-/AmpC-producers was low in all
species. In 2015, for the first time, prevalence data was

collected through specific monitoring performed on cecal
E. coli isolates from fattening pigs and calves, and from
derived meat, after culture in selective media containing
cefotaxime (1 mg/l). This method is more sensitive than the
non-selective culture methods (18) and is able to estimate
the proportion of samples contaminated with presumptive
ESBL-/AmpC-producing indicator E. coli among the
samples collected, thus providing additional information
compared with occurrence data originating from random
testing of isolates. Variable prevalence rates of ESBL-/
AmpC-producers were observed among countries, higher
in cecal samples than in meat. Carbapenemase-producing
E. coli were detected in single samples of pig meat and from
fattening pigs from two Member States. In 2016, the specific
monitoring was carried out also in poultry, and data will be
reported in the next EUSR-AMR, to be published in 2018.
Since 2015, a yearly reference testing exercise has been
established in collaboration with the European Reference
Laboratory for Antimicrobial resistance (EURL-AR)

TABLE 1. Occurrence of resistance to selected antimicrobials in Salmonella spp. and
indicator Escherichia coli in food-producing animals and food in 2014/2015,
according to EU AMR monitoring as set by Decision 2013/652/EU, using
harmonized ECOFFs. Values reported in the table are EU total values, including
results from all reporting Member States. There is variability in the number
of reporting Member States and in the occurrence of resistance within each
Member State (source: 5, 6)
Occurrence of resistance (%)
Salmonella spp.

Escherichia coli

AMP

SXT

TET

CIP

AMP

SXT

TET

CIP

Broilers

19.1

45.1

40.4

53.5

58.6

53.1

50.1

65.7

Laying hens

8.8

10.6

11.4

15.9

n/a

Fattening turkeys

58.0

50.4

68.3

65.8

69.0

51.1

70.9

50.3

Fattening pigs

45.3

52.6

53.5

4.7

39.3

44.2

54.7

10.5

Calves

40.0

51.3

50.0

2.5

31.0

36.6

45.4

11.4

Pig carcasses

44.7

48.5

49.1

4.3

n/a

Broiler meat

9.4

27.0

21.2

42.6

39.2

38.1

26.5

28.0

Turkey meat

30.1

27.0

64.6

24.3

70.5

48.4

61.6

40.5

Pig meat

44.7

48.5

49.1

4.3

n/a

Bovine meat

40.0

50.0

51.3

2.5

n/a

AMP: ampicillin; SXT: sulfamethoxazole; TET: tetracycline; CIP: ciprofloxacin; n/a: not available

Food Protection Trends January/February

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