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Monitoring of Antimicrobial Resistance

Directive 2003/99/EC defines “'antimicrobial resistance' as meaning the ability of micro-organisms of certain species to survive or even to grow in the presence of a given concentration of an antimicrobial agent, that is usually sufficient to inhibit or kill micro-organisms of the same species”.

Article 7 of Directive 2003/99/EC requires that European Union Member States must ensure that the monitoring of related antimicrobial resistance is in accordance with Annex II to the Directive and that the monitoring programme provides comparable data on the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance in zoonotic agents and in other agents (so far as they present a threat to public health). The monitoring must supplement the monitoring of human isolates conducted in accordance with Decision No 2119/98/EC (no longer in force).

European Union Member States must ensure that the monitoring system for antimicrobial resistance provided for in Article 7 of Directive 2003/99/EC provides at least the following information:

  • animal species included in monitoring;
  • bacterial species and/or strains included in monitoring;
  • sampling strategy used in monitoring;
  • antimicrobials included in monitoring;
  • laboratory methodology used for the detection of resistance;
  • laboratory methodology used for the identification of microbial isolates;
  • methods used for the collection of the data.

European Union Member States must ensure that the monitoring system provides relevant information at least with regard to a representative number of isolates of Salmonella spp., Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli from cattle, pigs, and poultry and food of animal origin derived from those species.