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FDA cautions against misinterpreting antimicrobial resistance data
Story Date: 4/23/2013
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Source: Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE, 4/22/13
The Food and Drug Administration is warning against misinterpreting its recently released 2011 Retail Meat Annual Report of the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS).
FDA issued a news release today saying the Environmental Working Group’s interpretation of the data was flawed.
“While FDA is always concerned when we see antimicrobial resistance, we believe the EWG report oversimplifies the NARMS data and provides misleading conclusions. We do not believe that EWG fully considered important factors that put these results in context,” the agency release stated.
FDA went on to say, "Additionally, we believe that it is inaccurate and alarmist to define bacteria resistant to one, or even a few, antimicrobials as “superbugs” if these same bacteria are still treatable by other commonly used antibiotics. This is especially misleading when speaking of bacteria that do not cause foodborne disease and have natural resistances, such as Enterococcus."
For full details of where FDA says EWG went wrong, click here.
To read the EWG report, click here.
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