NARMS Cooperative Agreement Program to Strengthen Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance in Retail Food Specimens

Project Summary/Abstract The Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) is a long-term participant and leader in the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) Retail Food Surveillance (RFS) program. TDH feels that the expansion of the retail food arm of NARMS is a critical step in conducting surveillance for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the food chain and for monitoring the impact of recent national initiatives, including important regulatory changes in the use of antimicrobials in food animals. Use of antimicrobials in food animal production creates selective pressure that enables antimicrobial-resistant bacteria to migrate to the food supply and ultimately cause human infections. Of concern, antibiotic-resistant infections are accompanied by more severe illnesses, more deaths, higher healthcare costs, and increased harm to society. We feel that surveillance is critical “data-for-action” to not only understand the sources of AMR and multidrug resistance (MDR) in the food supply chain but to combat this public health problem. Tennessee embraces the goal of the NARMS food surveillance program to improve the detection of and surveillance for AMR among enteric bacteria in raw retail food commodities through this cooperative funding agreement (FOA # PAR- 25-014). Tennessee will participate fully in all project components, including the purchase of approved meats and seafood, testing by NARMS protocols, shipment of isolates and metadata, and continued activity in the NARMS working groups. Additionally, Tennessee anticipates participating in any future pilot activity or expansion to other commodities. Tennessee's capacity for testing food has translated to increased ability to assess isolates and their link to human clusters, as well as more proficiency in testing food during outbreaks and quickly characterizing the AMR properties to inform the public health investigation. Tennessee will participate fully in all NARMS RFS activities and follow the accepted protocols during the 5-year period. Our strategy includes: 1. Maintain sampling and reporting with a continuous quality improvement paradigm in RFS. 2. Foster partnership among Tennessee, federal, state, local, and external partners. 3. Enhance outbreak investigation response and reporting. 4. Sustain and enhance NARMS laboratory diagnostic capacity. 6. Improve laboratory coordination, outreach, and information flow. 7. Maintain and exchange the integrated surveillance information system. Tennessee’s expectations and outcomes, strategies and activities, and collaborative activities will continue throughout the 5-year period with continued funding. We hope our response to this FOA will be favorably considered.