Canadian
Integrated Program for
Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance
(CIPARS)
2007 - Preliminary Results
(664 KB, 96 pages)
For more information please email cipars-picra@hc-sc.gc.ca
We are posting preliminary1 antimicrobial resistance (AMR) findings for the most recent complete calendar year 2007 on the CIPARS website. New in this 3rd edition of the ‘Preliminary Results’ is the addition of AMR temporal variation figures (from 2003 to 2007) and of MIC tables. Data from the following program components are available in this report:
Integrated analysis results based on human and agri-food AMR data will be presented in the full 2007 CIPARS Annual Report, as well as On-Farm Surveillance AMR and antimicrobial use results from pigs, human antimicrobial consumption estimates in the Canadian community (Canadian CompuScript- IMS Health) and kilograms of antimicrobials distributed in Canada in animals (Canadian Animal Health Institute).
1 2007 Data were extracted from dataset as of February 27th and March 13th 2008 for the the human and the agri-food isolates respectively.
The Surveillance of Human Clinical Isolates component is designed to provide representative data on Salmonella isolates at the provincial level. All human Salmonella isolates received by the provincial public health laboratories in New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, and Saskatchewan are forwarded to the National Microbiology Laboratory of the Public Health Agency of Canada in Winnipeg, Manitoba. More populated provinces (Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and Québec) forward isolates received from the first to the 15th of each month. In addition, in 2007, all human isolates of S. Newport and S. Typhi were forwarded to the National Microbiology Laboratory because of concerns of emerging multidrug resistance and clinical importance respectively. Once we produced this document, only a subset of Salmonella isolates had been tested. The full annual report should include all isolates received in 2007.
Note: In Canada, while there are legislative requirements to report all new cases of salmonellosis to local and provincial public health authorities, forwarding of isolates from these cases by local laboratories is voluntary. When interpreting CIPARS data, it should be noted that most but not all isolates from reported cases are sent to provincial public health laboratories for reference testing. The total number of Salmonella isolates by serovar must be considered when interpreting the proportion of resistant isolates. Other limitations of surveillance data include disease under-diagnosing and under-reporting, which can lead to underestimating the true incidence of salmonellosis cases.
The Abattoir Surveillance component is designed to provide nationally representative antimicrobial resistance data from bacteria isolated from animals entering the food chain. Caecal contents (not carcass) from slaughtered food-producing animals are sampled to avoid misinterpretation related to crosscontamination and to better reflect the antimicrobial resistance at the farm level. All samples are shipped to the PHAC Laboratory for Foodborne Zoonoses (Saint-Hyacinthe) for microbiological analyses.
This program was initiated in September 2002 with sampling designed to target Escherichia coli and Salmonella from beef cattle, swine, and broiler chicken. Salmonella recovery from beef cattle was interrupted in 2003 due to low prevalence in this commodity. Program refinement in September 2005 included the addition of Campylobacter isolation from beef cattle.
Over 90% of all food-producing animals in Canada are slaughtered in federally inspected abattoirs. Forty-six federally inspected slaughter plants (24 poultry plants, 13 swine plants, and 9 beef cattle plants) from across Canada participated in the 2007 CIPARS abattoir component. The “beef cattle” dataset may include a small number of samples from dairy cattle, as a small number of plants slaughter both commodities, however veal is excluded.
Our collection periods are uniformly distributed over a 12-month course to avoid any potential seasonal bias in bacteria prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility. Our sampling program is designed to yield approximately 150 isolates per targeted bacterial and animal species per year across Canada.
The objective of our Retail Meat Surveillance component is to examine antimicrobial resistance of select bacteria found in raw meat at the retail level. Retail sampling provides a measure of human exposure to antimicrobial resistant bacteria via undercooked meat consumption or cross-contamination with raw food products. In 2007, we collected samples in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Québec.
We are interested in bacterial isolates cultured from specific meat products commonly consumed by Canadians such as poultry (chicken legs or wings), pork (chops), and beef (ground beef). These meat selection mirrors the animal productions studied in the Abattoir Surveillance component of our program. For ground beef, we systematically select samples from extra lean, lean, medium and regular ground beef to reflect the heterogeneity of this product in terms of the commodity combinations of fed beef and cull dairy, and the domestic vs. imported meat content.
The bacteria of interest in poultry are Campylobacter, Salmonella, Enterococcus, and E. coli. In pork and beef we only perform antimicrobial resistance test on E. coli2, since there is a low prevalence of Campylobacter and Salmonella (less than three percent each) at retail in these commodities, as determined during the early phase of the program.
The sampling protocol involves continuous weekly sample submissions from randomly selected census divisions, weighted by population, in each of the selected provinces. Using prevalence estimates from the previous year, our sampling protocols are designed to yield approximately 100 isolates per commodity per province per year, plus 20% for lost or damaged samples.
Note: We did not collect 100 Salmonella isolates for retail chicken in 2007 in the provinces of British Columbia and Saskatchewan as resources to expand our sampling capacity were not available at this point in time, and sampling did not occur through the year in British Columbia.
2 We perform Salmonella recovery tests from retail pork to obtain a prevalence estimate of contamination, but due to the small number of isolates recovered annually, we do not report AMR in Salmonella isolated from pork.
The Surveillance of Animal Clinical Salmonella Isolates component originates primarily from veterinary diagnostic submissions collected by veterinarians and/or producers. These isolates are sent by provincial animal health laboratories across the country to the Salmonella Typing Laboratory at the Laboratory for Foodborne Zoonoses (Guelph, Ontario), where they are serotyped, susceptibility tested, and in some cases, phagetyped. Isolates from Québec are serotyped by the Laboratoire d’épidémiosurveillance animale du Québec before being shipped to the Salmonella Typing Laboratory of Guelph where they are phagetyped when appropriate, and tested for AMR.
Note: The number of submissions varies considerably between provinces. Unlike our Surveillance of Human Clinical Isolates program, all isolates received by provincial animal health laboratories may not necessarily be forwarded to the Laboratory for Foodborne Zoonoses of Guelph, with the exception of the provinces of Ontario and Québec. Most samples are obtained from diseased animals and sample submissions may have followed therapeutic failure. Generally, these animals do not enter the food chain. Despite the fact that contamination through direct contact with a diseased animal is possible, we assume that this risk is lower at the national level than exposure through contaminated food. For these reasons, estimates from these animal isolates are judged not appropriate for evaluating general human exposure to antimicrobial resistance. Information from these animal isolates is however valuable for detecting emerging resistance, identifying new multidrug resistance patterns, and assessing the occurrence of resistance in sick animals.