- The National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS), established in 1996, is a collaborative program of state and local public health departments and universities, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). NARMS gathers surveillance data from human clinical samples, slaughter samples and retail meat samples and tracks changes in the antimicrobial susceptibility of enteric (intestinal) bacteria found in ill people (CDC), retail meats (FDA), and food animals (USDA) in the U.S. NARMS data are used by FDA to make regulatory decisions designed to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics for humans and animals.
- In a report issued this month (which covers data from calendar year 2014), NARMS found measurable decreases in salmonella present in retail chicken and ground turkey. More specifically, for retail meat testing in 2014, NARMS found that salmonella recovery continued to decline in poultry sources to the lowest levels in 20 years of NARMS testing, reaching a prevalence of 9.1% in chicken and 5.5% in ground turkey, while remaining below 1.5% in beef (0.8%) and pork (1.3%). This report also notes a consistent decline in the proportion of salmonella isolates from retail chicken meat that are multi-drug resistant.
- This latest NARMS report is encouraging to food safety advocates and industry alike – both of whom are continually seeking to reduce the prevalence of foodborne illnesses while balancing considerations of curbing antimicrobial resistance.