FDA Responds To EWG “Superbugs” On Meat Report

In Forbes (4/22, 928K), contributor Beth Hoffman published a response from the FDA regarding a recently released report by the Environmental Working Group “on the presence of ‘superbugs’ on meat products in grocery stores” that she covered. 

FDA Spokesperson Jalil Isa wrote that the EWG report “oversimplifies the NARMS data. EWG’s evaluation of the NARMS findings does not take into account important differences between various forms of bacteria and antibiotics. The EWG report cites some pathogens that don’t lead to food-borne illnesses or focuses on resistance to antibiotics that are not commonly used to treat sick people. .... The numbers cited are also misleading. We do not believe that EWG fully considered important factors that put these results in context: whether the bacterium is a foodborne pathogen (Enterococcus is not considered a foodborne pathogen), which drug(s) the bacterium are resistant to (for example, most Enterococcusfaecalis is naturally resistant to the antibiotic class of lincosamides), and whether the main therapies for the pathogen are still effective (NARMS data indicates that first-line treatments are still effective).”

FDA CVM Director Responds To Bacteria In Meat Report

In a New York Times (4/24, Subscription Publication, 1.68M) letter-to-the editor, the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine Director Dr. Bernadette Dunham responds to an April 17 article “about the Environmental Working Group’s interpretation of government data on antimicrobial resistant bacteria in meat,” noting that the some data in the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System “may have limited direct medical relevance, and it’s important to consider which drugs are used to treat infections and which bacteria actually cause food-borne illness.”

Moreover, Dr. Dunham calls the EWG’s conclusion “that resistance in any bacterium is problematic for human health” an “oversimplication” because some “bacteria are naturally resistant to certain drugs. Also, describing bacteria that are resistant to one, or even a few, drugs as ‘superbugs’ is inappropriate” because superbugs are “pathogens that can cause severe disease and are very difficult to treat,” she notes.