WASHINGTON – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a public meeting to discuss progress toward monitoring antimicrobial resistance in the food supply. The meeting is scheduled for Aug. 12-13 at FDA headquarters in Silver Spring, Md. A webcast of the meeting also will be available.

FDA officials will discuss progress made under the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS), a collaboration among FDA, the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US Department of Agriculture and state and local public health agencies. NARMS was established in 1996 to monitor changes in the antimicrobial resistance of certain intestinal bacteria found in ill people, retail meats and live animals.


FDA will provide updates on the NARMS 2012-2013 Strategic Plan and discuss possible future activities. Discussion topics will include:

• The role of NARMS in analyzing foodborne outbreaks;
• Results of interagency research projects using advanced detection methods;
• Comparisons of new and old methods of sampling at the time of slaughter; and
• How scientific advances impact FDA’s decision making.