title: Pan-European resistance monitoring programmes encompassing food-borne bacteria and target pathogens of food-producing and companion animals.
abstract: Antimicrobial resistance is a concern both for animal and human health. Veterinary programmes monitoring resistance of animal and zoonotic pathogens are therefore essential. Various European countries have implemented national surveillance programmes, particularly for zoonotic and commensal bacteria, and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is compiling the data. However, harmonisation is identified as a weakness and an essential need in order to compare data across countries. Comparisons of resistance monitoring data among national programmes are hampered by differences between programmes, such as sampling and testing methodology, and different epidemiological cut-off values or clinical breakpoints. Moreover, only very few valid data are available regarding target pathogens both of farm and companion animals. The European Animal Health Study Centre (CEESA) attempts to fill these gaps. The resistance monitoring programmes of CEESA have been a collaboration of veterinary pharmaceutical companies for over a decade and include two different projects: the European Antimicrobial Susceptibility Surveillance in Animals (EASSA) programme, which collects food-borne bacteria at slaughter from healthy animals, and the pathogen programmes that collect first-intention target pathogens from acutely diseased animals. The latter comprises three subprogrammes: VetPath; MycoPath; and ComPath. All CEESA projects include uniform sample collection and bacterial identification to species level in various European Union (EU) member states. A central laboratory conducts quantitative susceptibility testing to antimicrobial agents either important in human medicine or commonly used in veterinary medicine. This 'methodology harmonisation' allows easy comparisons among EU member states and makes the CEESA programmes invaluable to address food safety and antibiotic efficacy.
authors: CEESA Antimicrobial Resistance Study Groups, Rue Defacqz 1, 1000 Brussels, Belgium. anno.jong@bayer.com
authors: A
authors: A
authors: de Jong
authors: V
authors: V
authors: Thomas
authors: U
authors: U
authors: Klein
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Marion
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Moyaert
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Simjee
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Vallé
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic / Q000382:microbiology*; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D062665:Epidemiological Monitoring; D005062:European Union; D005516:Food Microbiology; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D057805:Pets / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents