SSA: NARMS should include seafood in its drug resistance monitoring program
As currently organized, NARMS allows the public to access data regarding incidents of detection of antimicrobial resistant pathogens for seven different bacterium (including salmonella, e.coli, and campylobacter) related to cattle, swine, chicken, and turkey products. No seafood products are currently covered by the monitoring system, according to SSA.
The group that represents shrimp fishermen and processors in the southern US says that seafood products should be also monitored after a research showed the presence of resistant Salmonella in imported shrimp.
A Science Board review of NARMS, completed in June, observed that there was “interest in expanding monitoring to fish and other seafood, such as tilapia, salmon and shrimp.” The Science Board recommended sampling seafood along with other meat products.
The members of the Southern Shrimp Alliance are increasingly concerned by the prevalent use of antimicrobials in shrimp aquaculture outside of the United States. As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) appropriately recognizes, the presence of certain antimicrobial residues in food products creates health risks for consumers. This, in turn, adversely impacts
consumer confidence in shrimp products available for consumption in the US market.
SSA says that because the US regulatory system for country-of-origin labeling is weak – with no such requirements in place for food purchased and consumed in restaurants – any reduction in consumer confidence has
a direct negative effect on the market for US wild-caught and farm-raised shrimp.
Furthermore, SSA says that a coalition group called "Keep Antibiotics Working" also supports the expansion of the monitoring program to “incorporate sampling of imported foods, including imported animal feed, feed ingredients, and seafood, into NARMS.”
Keep Antibiotics Working is composed of the Center for Food Safety; John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future; the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center, the George Washington University; the Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention; Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT); the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG); The Humane Society of the United States; the Humane Society Legislative Fund; and Natural Resources Defense Council.
Keep Antibiotics Working observed that “there is ample evidence that there are different antibiotic resistance risks between countries with some countries having much higher level of clinically important resistance in bacteria from meat and seafood.” Accordingly, the coalition “recommends sampling seafood” while emphasizing “examining imported food for seafood [as] this means most seafood marketed in the U.S. since most is imported.”
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