[Increase in antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella from food to fluoroquinolones and cephalosporins--a review of data from ten years].

Animal derived food is a relevant source of human infections with Salmonella enterica. In this paper we analyse the presence of Salmonella in meat with respect to the observed serovars and their resistance to the fluoroquinolone ciprofloxacin and 3rd generation cephalosporins in the years 2003 to 2012. Data originated from 8176 isolates that were isolated from meat, characterized in the National Reference Laboratory for Salmonella and tested for antimicrobial resistance in the National Reference Laboratory for antimicrobial resistance in this time period. The analysis reveals substantial differences in resistance patterns between isolates from different types of meat and different serovars. Frequent serovars were mostly associated with one type of meat, suggesting an additional influence of specific characteristics of the serovars besides the effect of selection pressure excerted by antimicrobial treatments. Results show a clear increase in resistance to fluoroquinolones and 3rd generation cephalosporins that was most prominent in isolates from poultry meat. Although the number of human infections with Salmonella in Germany decreased sharply in recent years, results indicate a substantial exposure of consumers to Salmonella that are resistant to important antimicrobials via meat.