Scientific assessment of resistance monitoring results in accordance with the zoonoses sample scheme 2009

Zoonoses are infectious diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans. Some of the more relevant causes of these infectious diseases include Salmonella and Campylobac-ter which can be transmitted by foods such as poultry or pork. Zoonoses are a worldwide problem. In 2009 an annual country-wide zoonoses and resistance monitoring plan com-menced in order to collect information regarding the extent of contamination of livestock and food with zoonotic agents in Germany. The legal basis of this is the general administrative regulation on zoonoses in the food chain (AVV Zoonosen Lebensmittelkette) of 18 July 2008. The AVV is based on Directive 2003/99/EC on the monitoring of zoonoses and zoonotic agents. According to this, EU Member States are obligated to collect, evaluate and publish data on the emergence of zoonoses and their agents as well as related antibiotic resistances in food, feed and live animals. The AVV Zoonosen Lebensmittelkette stipulates that data are collected by the federal Länder as part of the official control of foodstuffs and livestock according to a representative sam-pling scheme agreed upon by the Government and the Länder. The following BfR Opinion reports on the scientific assessment of the resistance monitoring analysis results in light of consumer health protection. Infections with zoonotic agents in humans may require to be treated with antibiotics. Fur-thermore, the resistance of intestinal bacteria and contaminants can be transmitted to other bacteria, which can potentially lead to illness in humans. Thus, the control of bacterial resis-tance to antibiotics is quite relevant for human and animal health. BfR has analysed the re-sistance of zoonotic agents and commensal bacteria as part of zoonoses monitoring.DE; de; efsa-focal-point@bfr.bund.d