Federal researchers say multi-drug resistance has increased to 12 percent of salmonella bacteria found in the digestive systems of ill people, up from 9 percent in the previous year. Salmonella is a common type of food-borne illness estimated to affect 1 million Americans annually and to cause 380 deaths a year.
The new National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) report, based on 2015 data, said the increase in multi-drug resistance was “driven largely by an increase in combined resistance to ampicillin, streptomycin, sulfonamides, and tetracyclin,” said the FDA. Some 76 percent of salmonella had no resistance to any of the 14 antimicrobials used in the NARMS survey.
NARMS is intended to help public health officials decide how to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics to treat disease in humans. For the reports, the CDC provides data on antibiotic resistance in bacteria isolated from people, while the FDA reports on resistant bacteria in raw retail meat and the USDA on resistant bacteria found in livestock at slaughter plants.
In a summary of the new NARMS report, the FDA said there was a large reduction, to 57 percent, in the proportion of salmonella in retail ground turkey that showed resistance to at least one antibiotic. “Historically, the majority of isolates from turkey sources have been resistant to at least one antimicrobial,” said FDA.
To read the new NARMS report, click here.