Review of antimicrobial resistance surveillance programmes in livestock and meat in EU with focus on humans

Characterization of AMR genes in livestock is applied heterogeneously among countries. Most antibiotics of human interest are included in animal surveillance, although results are difficult to compare as a result of lack of representativeness of animal samples. We suggest that EU/EEA countries provide better uniform AMR monitoring and reporting in livestock and link them better to surveillance systems in humans. Reducing the delay between data collection and publication is also important to allow prompt identification of new resistance patterns.