Partners in Antimicrobial Resistance and Food Safety

Preventing the spread of foodborne infections from resistant bacteria is not easy. CDC works closely with partners to address foodborne antimicrobial resistance threats and inform food safety practices that protect against these threats. These partners include federal agencies, state and local health departments, representatives from the food industry, consumer groups, universities, healthcare providers, and others.

Many of these partners play complementary roles through the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS), a US public health surveillance system that tracks antimicrobial resistance in foodborne and other enteric bacteria.

Partners in Antimicrobial Resistance and Food Safety
	Humans	Retail Meats	Food-Producing Animals
Federal agency(s) involved	Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)	U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)	United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)*
State agencies and academic institutions involved	Health departments in all 50 states	Health departments in 14 states Universities in 6 states
Where do the samples that are tested come from?	Ill persons	Retail meats from grocery stores Chicken Ground turkey Ground beef Pork	Farm animals Chickens Turkeys Cattle Swine
What bacteria does NARMS test for resistance†?	Salmonella Campylobacter Escherichia coli O157 Vibrio Shigella	Salmonella Campylobacter Escherichia coli^‡ Enterococcus^‡	Salmonella Campylobacter Escherichia coli^‡ Enterococcus^‡
Where can I find more information?	CDC NARMS	FDA NARMS	USDA NARMS

^*USDA NARMS agencies include the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), and the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). Each USDA NARMS agency tests bacterial samples taken from food-producing animals at different stages of production.
^†NARMS tests bacteria from sporadic cases and outbreaks of illness for resistance to 22 antibiotic agents that are in 13 classes of drugs.
^‡Most Escherichia coli and Enterococcus do not cause human illness, but antimicrobial resistance in these bacteria can spread to other bacteria that can make people sick.