The National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, has tested the capability of national reference laboratories to identify antimicrobial resistance in different food-related bacteria. The test shows that the quality of the assessments of most national laboratories in the European Union is fine, and that most of them can identify the resistant bacteria correctly.
The National Food Institute is the European Reference Laboratory for antimicrobial resistance, EURL-AR. In this capacity we have has tested the national reference laboratories in EU countries for their capability to identify the presence of resistant bacteria among selected food-related bacteria.
Test results show that most of the laboratories which participated in the study meet the identification standards and are, thus, in a position to identify most resistant bacteria correctly. However, a few laboratories need to improve their antimicrobial resistant identification methods.
Harmonisation of EU legislation
In 2013, the EURL-AR assisted the European Union in preparing new legislation in order to harmonise the monitoring and reporting of antimicrobial resistance in zoonotic and commensal bacteria in the European Union.
For the first time, legislation dictates harmonisation between national reference laboratories in the food and veterinary area as regards testing with the same concentration of antibiotics. This will result in entirely comparable data submitted to EFSA.
In this year’s ring test, which consists of analyses carried out by several laboratories on the same samples, all ESBL-producing Salmonella and E.coli bacteria were to be assessed according to the new legislation. This caused some difficulties as the laboratories had not yet implemented the new list of antibiotics, but used the list from the previous year. This is expected to be improved in 2014, when harmonisation becomes effective.
Read more
See the reports:
Report of the 5th External Quality Assurance System on Identification and Typing of Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), 2013 (pdf).
The 14th EURL-AR Proficiency Test – enterococci, staphylococci and E. coli 2013 (pdf).
The 15th EURL-AR Proficiency Test – Salmonella, Campylobacter and genotypic characterization 2013 (pdf).
See the new legislation: Commission implementing decision of November 2013, on the monitoring and reporting of antimicrobial resistance in zoonotic and commensal bacteria (pdf).