2021-09-30 07:21:33
Monitoring the level of antibiotic resistance involves taking bacteria to test their response to different antibiotics. These samples can be taken from healthy animals, that is to say at the slaughterhouse and from the meat, or from sick animals, the samples then being taken by the veterinarians treating the animals. Only monitoring of antibiotic resistance in healthy animals and meat is harmonized at European level. Several countries, including France, also carry out surveillance of theAntibiotic resistance in sick animals. ANSES is in charge of these two monitoring activities at the French level. “ These systems are complementary », Explains Jean-Yves Madec, scientific director of antibiotic resistance at ANSES. “ It is important to compare their results. Sick animals may be under antibiotic treatment while this is not the case for healthy animals, so we expect to find different levels of antibiotic resistance between these two groups of animals. »
Complementarity of surveillance systems
This comparison was made in a study published in the journal Microorganisms. This focused on monitoring the antibiotic resistance of the bacteria Escherichia coli in four European countries, particularly France and Germany. The study showed differences in resistance levels depending on antibiotics and animal species, but also between countries and depending on surveillance contexts. Differences in resistance levels between countries can be partly explained by differences in usage antibiotics. Scientists have shown that differences in trends are possible between data from the monitoring of healthy and sick animals. Thus, resistance to an antibiotic, nalidixic acid, tends to increase for bacteria taken from sick chickens but to decrease in healthy chickens, whether in France or in Germany. This might be linked to the fact that pathogenic Escherichia coli strains are more often confronted with the antibiotic, which favors the development of resistance.
Proposal for a new European network
These results support the need for data in both healthy and diseased animals. In another publication, ANSES scientists, with colleagues from different European institutes, call for the creation of a European network for monitoring antibiotic resistance in veterinary medicine (EARS-Vet). Their article proposes the basis of this network, detailing the objectives it might have. He also underlines that based on the achievements of national and European antimicrobial resistance surveillance systems, both in animal and human health, creating such a network is realistic. However, harmonization remains to be done, the criteria and species currently monitored differ from one State to another.
Other bacteria might be monitored
Antibiotic resistance monitoring might also be improved by extending it to other bacteria. Currently, only bacteria that can be transmitted from animals to humans, such as Salmonella or Campylobacter or considered a good indicator of the general level of antibiotic resistance, such as Escherichia coli for example, are monitored regularly. However, other bacteria, responsible for diseases causing significant losses on farms and requiring the use of medications, might also benefit from such monitoring. In an article published in Frontiers in veterinary science, ANSES scientists have shown how the Vigimyc national surveillance network, which records cases of mycoplasma infections of ruminants, might be coupled with the monitoring of antibiotic resistance in this group of bacteria. The scientists were able detect trends in the evolution of antibiotic resistance on the different species of mycoplasmas collected within the framework of the Vigimic network. However, the implementation of large-scale monitoring would also require harmonization of monitoring methods and criteria for interpreting the results.
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