Nicholls, Henry, Kainth, Bobby, Cook, Paul, Mumford, Rick, Keevil, Charles, La Ragione, Roberto, Threlfall, Eric, McDowell, David and Callaghan, Kathryn (2023) Foodborne antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research and surveillance in the UK: priorities identified through the Food Standards Agency's AMR programme review (2023). Journal of Medical Microbiology, 72 (10), [001753]. (doi:10.1099/jmm.0.001753).
Abstract
The significance and burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been well documented. The 2016 O’Neill report highlighted the enormous risk that AMR poses to human health and made recommendations to address this global challenge1. The report prompted the UK’s 20-year vision for AMR2, highlighting how the UK will contain and control antimicrobial resistance by 2040. Alongside this vision, a 5-year National Action Plan (NAP)3, 2019-2024, was created; laying out how government departments would deliver co-ordinated action to mitigate the impact of AMR.
Since its formation in 2000, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has funded AMR research and surveillance to understand the impact and burden of AMR in the food chain, and promote good hygiene practices to reduce consumers exposure to pathogens and AMR via food. The FSA’s AMR Research & Evidence Programme, guided by the Areas of Research Interest4, continues to commission AMR-related research and surveillance to generate evidence and meet its departmental commitments in the UK’s AMR NAP (the FSA is the lead department for AMR in food). Given the extensive portfolio of work completed by the FSA’s AMR programme (all publications available on food.gov.uk) and the completion of the current NAP, the FSA held a two-day event to firstly, review the work completed under its AMR programme, and secondly, to identify and prioritise new and emerging challenges in food-related AMR, with the express intention of informing the new NAP 2025-2029.
This article outlines the areas identified and prioritised from the programme review event, which was attended by government experts, academics, and other specialists in the field of food-related AMR research and surveillance and included presentations and breakout discussions to prioritise future work (more information on the FSA’s AMR programme can be found on the website: Antimicrobial resistance | Food Standards Agency). For the theme ‘surveillance’, experts were provided with a list of retail food types to vote on, but also had the option to suggest categories not listed. The breakout session under the theme ‘research’ was a free format, to enable open discussion.
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