Antibiotic resistance is a real and unwelcome survival strategy of bacteria which presents a continuous challenge to the health of humans and animals.
The «advance in healthcare progress» as well as the revolutionary development of new antibiotic molecules, has significantly reduced the rate of mortality associated with bacterial infection. The presence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, however, has strongly undermined these achievements; nowadays infections which were once easily treatable, have become more difficult or even impossible to manage (1).
Antimicrobial resistance is a European and worldwide problem involving numerous sectors of industry, such as human medicine, veterinary science, livestock farming and breeding, agriculture, environmental science and trade (2).
The global nature of this problem has led to international institutions, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Centre for Prevention and Disease Control (ECDC) launching a series of alarms and to including Antibiotic Resistance among the main priorities facing the Community. The resolution entitled: «A European strategy against the microbial threat» (1999/c 195/01) confirmed that effective measures in the reduction of the phenomenon of antibiotic resistance could not be achieved only by action taken on a national level, but by coordinated activity with a common strategy at both national and international levels.
A human diet derived from animal products that have been treated with antibiotics could become a means of the transmission of antimicrobial resistance from animals to humans. This underlines the importance of the link between human and veterinary medicine as seen in the «One Health» document (*). Moreover, in veterinary science there are further aspects which give cause for concern (3).
Reports dating back to as early as 2007 (4) and 2010 (5) published by the EFSA, concluded that some of the most common zoonotic bacteria found in animals and food in the European Community had developed a certain level of resistance to antibiotics.
Among the different kinds of bacteria tested, resistance to ampicillin, sulfonamides and tetracycline was repeatedly found and furthermore resistance to fluoroquinolones, macrolides and third generation cefalosporins has been reported in various nations (all of the above mentioned are important antibiotics involved in the treatment of infectious human pathologies).(6)
Bibliography
- (1) Wang SY, George D, Purych D, Patric DM, Antibiotic resistance : a global threat to public Health. BCMJ,2014,6:295-296-BC Centre for Disease Control.
- (2) Roca I, Akova M, Baquero F, et al. The Global threat of antimicrobial resistance: science for intervention. New microbes and New infections. 2015;6:22-29.
- (3) Carattoli A et al. 2005; Busani C. et al 2004.
- (4) EFSA Trands for Sources of zoonoses and Zoonotic Agents, 2007
- (5) EFSA Food-borne Outbreaks in the European Union in 2008, 2010
- (6) EFSA Trands for Sources of zoonoses and Zoonotic Agents an Food-borne Outbreaks in the European Union in 2008, 26 April 2010 *Pubblication of American Veterinary Medical Association.