Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent research his Department has conducted, funded or commissioned into the transmission of antimicrobial resistance from animal pathogens to human pathogens.

Public Health England (PHE), the Veterinary Medicines Directorate and colleagues from the devolved administrations plan to publish a joint report (One Health Report 2015) on human and animal antibiotic use and resistance in the United Kingdom in May 2015. The report compares primary/secondary care prescribing data and veterinary antibiotic sales data and presents antimicrobial resistance (AMR) levels to key antibiotics used in human and veterinary medicine for important indicator (Escherichia coli) and zoonotic (Campylobacter spp., non-typhoidal Salmonella) bacteria. There are significant differences in the surveillance systems providing the data for this report; this report will improve the understanding of the AMR relationship between animals and humans in the UK.

PHE is being funded by the Department’s Policy Research Programme and the Food Standards Agency to look at public health risk associated with extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) positive E. Coli from non-human reservoirs. This will be the largest study of its kind undertaken in the UK and involves England, Wales and Scotland. It is planned to publish the report in 2016.

The Department’s National Institute for Health Research is funding a Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance at the University of Oxford. This is a research partnership between the university and PHE. The unit is working with the Animal and Plant Health Agency to develop and validate tools to look for resistance genes in bacteria from diverse sources using new genome sequencing technologies rather than classical methods.

A study by researchers at the former Health Protection Agency, published in 2010, investigated E. coli producing ESBL enzymes from chicken meat imported into the UK from South America. The study specifically looked at whether the meat was a source of the common ST131 clone or CTX-M 15 ESBL producers. It was concluded that this was not a significant source of either the ST131 clone or the CTX-M 15 ESBLs in the UK. The publication is available at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20889530

Work funded by the Medical Research Council includes research led by the University of Cambridge looking at emergence of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus in cattle and transmission to humans.

The Antimicrobial Resistance Funders’ Forum (AMRFF) has been established to provide a forum for the sharing of information on activities relating to AMR, and in particular anti-bacterial resistance, by the various member organisations. The Forum provides a framework for a more coordinated approach to tackling AMR research to maximise impact on national and international policies and activities. Membership of the AMRFF includes the Research Councils, Health Departments, Governmental bodies as well as charities with a direct or indirect interest in AMR and which provide significant research and development budgets in the area.