Salmonella and Campylobacter continue to show high levels of antibiotic resistance
Antibiotic resistance in Salmonella and Campylobacter bacteria is still high, says a report released by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
Campylobacteriosis was the most reported zoonosis in the EU in 2020 and the most frequently reported cause of foodborne illness. Campylobacter bacteria from humans and poultry continues to show very high resistance to ciprofloxacin, a fluoroquinolone antibiotic, that is commonly used to treat some types of bacterial human infection.
Increasing trends of resistance against the fluoroquinolone class of antibiotics has been observed in humans and broilers for Campylobacter jejuni.
In Salmonella Enteritidis, the most common type of Salmonella in humans, increasing trends of resistance to the quinolone/fluoroquinolone class of antibiotics were observed. In animals, resistance to these antibiotics in Campylobacter jejuni and Salmonella Enteritidis were generally moderate to high.
However, despite the increasing trends of resistance against certain antibiotics, simultaneous resistance to two critically important antibiotics – remains low for E. coli, Salmonella and Campylobacter in bacteria from both humans and food-producing animals.
A decline in resistance to tetracyclines and ampicillin in Salmonella from humans was observed in nine and ten countries, respectively, over the period 2016-2020, and this was particularly evident in Salmonella Typhimurium. Despite the decline, resistance to these antibiotics still remains high in bacteria from both humans and animals.