Consumer Exposure to Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria From Food at Swiss Retail Level

Abstract

Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria is an increasing health concern. The spread of AMR bacteria (AMRB) between animals and humans via the food chain and the exchange of AMR genes requires holistic approaches for risk mitigation. The AMRB exposure of humans via food is currently only poorly understood leaving an important gap for intervention design.Method: This study aimed to assess AMRB prevalence in retail food and subsequent exposure of Swiss consumers in a systematic literature review of data published between 1996 and 2016 covering the Swiss agriculture sector and relevant imported food.Results: Data from 313 out of 9,473 collected studies were extracted yielding 122,438 food samples and 38,362 bacteria isolates of which 30,092 samples and 8,799 isolates were AMR positive. A median AMRB prevalence of >50% was observed for meat and seafood harboring Campylobacter, Enterococcus, Salmonella, Escherichia coli, Listeria, and Vibrio spp. and to a lesser prevalence for milk products harboring starter culture bacteria. Gram-negative AMRB featured predominantly AMR against aminoglycosides, cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, penicillins, sulfonamides, and tetracyclines observed at AMR exposures scores of levels 1 (medium) and 2 (high) for Campylobacter, Salmonella, E. coli in meat as well as Vibrio and E. coli in seafood. Gram-positive AMRB featured AMR against glycoproteins, lincosamides, macrolides and nitrofurans for Staphylococcus and Enterococcus in meat sources, Staphylococcus in seafood as well as Enterococcus and technologically important bacteria (incl. starters) in fermented or processed dairy products. Knowledge gaps were identified for AMR prevalence in dairy, plant, fermented meat and novel food products and for the role of specific indicator bacteria (Staphylococcus, Enterococcus), starter culture bacteria and their mobile genetic elements in AMR gene transfer.Conclusion: Raw meat, milk, seafood, and certain fermented dairy products featured a medium to high potential of AMR exposure for Gram-negative and Gram-positive foodborne pathogens and indicator bacteria. Food at retail, additional food categories including fermented and novel foods as well as technologically important bacteria and AMR genetics are recommended to be better integrated into systematic One Health AMR surveillance and mitigation strategies to close observed knowledge gaps and enable a comprehensive AMR risk assessment for consumers.

Colistin resistance prevalence in Escherichia coli from domestic animals in intensive breeding farms of Jiangsu Province, China

“…The same patterns also were found in chicken 1232 samples and 156 cattle samples. The highest proportions of resistant E.coli colonies were identified from the adult animals, implying that the long-term selective pressure resulted in not only the highest prevalence of colistin resistance among E. coli isolates from adult animals found in this study, but also bacterial evolution and adaption from the piglet groups to adult groups [11]. Compared with the isolates from pigs and chickens recovered during 2013-2014, E. coli isolates collected during 2007-2008 (5.5%) and 2010-2011 (12.4%) showed significantly lower frequency of colistin resistance [12].…”

Overview of Evidence of Antimicrobial Use and Antimicrobial Resistance in the Food Chain

“…In S. Typhimurium, 20% of the isolates were resistant to aminoglycosides, 20% resistant to penicillins and 18% resistant to tetracyclines. For S. enteritidis, the percentage of isolates resistant to aminoglycosides and fuoroquinolones were 24% and 23%, respectively [48].…”

“…Two systematic reviews were conducted between 1999 and 2016 in the UK and Switzerland to investigate the occurrence of AMR in bacteria present in retail food [47,48]. The UK review looked at studies from the UK and countries exporting to the UK.…”

“…The review produced in Switzerland [48] targeted studies linked to Switzerland and the Swiss retail sector, i.e., studies from Switzerland as well as countries exporting food to Switzerland. The largest number of AMR-positive samples was observed in raw meat products; this was partly explained by an overrepresentation of studies on raw meat (of the 313 studies included in the review, a total of 160 studies contained data on the testing of raw meat).…”

Characterisation of illegally imported meat and meat products and identification of E. coli in the samples confiscated at the Croatian borders

“…The level of multi-drug resistant (MDR) E. coli was also overall very high (50.2%) (ANONYM., 2018). MDR E. coli was also observed in food samples in the EU (JAKOBSEN et al, 2010;NAGY et al, 2015;JANS et al, 2018). The geographical position of the Republic of Croatia is such that it is located on a corridor where many travellers transit through on their way to the EU.…”