Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Jan 28;9(2):49.
doi: 10.3390/antibiotics9020049.

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

Houda Bennani  1 , Ana Mateus  1 , Nicholas Mays  2 , Elizabeth Eastmure  2 , Katharina D C Stärk  1   3 , Barbara Häsler  1
Affiliations
Review

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

Houda Bennani et al. Antibiotics (Basel). .

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health problem. Bacteria carrying resistance genes can be transmitted between humans, animals and the environment. There are concerns that the widespread use of antimicrobials in the food chain constitutes an important source of AMR in humans, but the extent of this transmission is not well understood. The aim of this review is to examine published evidence on the links between antimicrobial use (AMU) in the food chain and AMR in people and animals. The evidence showed a link between AMU in animals and the occurrence of resistance in these animals. However, evidence of the benefits of a reduction in AMU in animals on the prevalence of resistant bacteria in humans is scarce. The presence of resistant bacteria is documented in the human food supply chain, which presents a potential exposure route and risk to public health. Microbial genome sequencing has enabled the establishment of some links between the presence of resistant bacteria in humans and animals but, for some antimicrobials, no link could be established. Research and monitoring of AMU and AMR in an integrated manner is essential for a better understanding of the biology and the dynamics of antimicrobial resistance.

Keywords: antibiotic resistance; antimicrobial resistance; antimicrobial use; food chain; integrated surveillance.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. Author KS was employed by the company SAFOSO and have no conflicts of interest to declare. The industry-funded work conducted by SAFOSO all has a technical focus and complies with quality standards applied in academia.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Links between different fields of data identified on the relationship between anti-microbial use (AMU) and anti-microbial resistance (AMR) in the food chain and people.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. O’Neill J. Tackling dRug-Resistant Infections Globally: Final Report and Recommendations. [(accessed on 15 May 2017)];2016 Available online: https://amr-review.org/sites/default/files/160525_Final%20paper_with%20c....
    1. World Health Organization Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance. [(accessed on 15 May 2017)];2015 Available online: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/193736/9789241509763_en.... - PubMed
    1. European Commission A European One Health Action Plan Against Antimicrobial Resistance (amr) [(accessed on 25 April 2019)];2017 Available online: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52017DC033....
    1. Boerlin P., Reid-Smith R.J. Antimicrobial resistance: Its emergence and transmission. Anim. Health Res. Rev. 2008;9:115–126. doi: 10.1017/S146625230800159X. - DOI - PubMed
    1. D’Costa V.M., King C.E., Kalan L., Morar M., Sung W.W., Schwarz C., Froese D., Zazula G., Calmels F., Debruyne R., et al. Antibiotic resistance is ancient. Nature. 2011;477:457–461. doi: 10.1038/nature10388. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources