January 24, 2011
The FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine announced today the availability of its National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) Strategic Plan, a dynamic roadmap which outlines the program’s commitment to sustained food safety through monitoring and research.
NARMS is dedicated to the protection of human and animal health through integrated monitoring of antimicrobial resistance among enteric bacteria. The NARMS program is critical to accomplishing the mission of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and ultimately in protecting the health of Americans through safer food.
In March 2007, an External Subcommittee of the Science Board to the FDA conducted a review of the NARMS program. This subcommittee made recommendations related to four areas of work performed by NARMS: 1) sampling, 2) research, 3) international activities, and 4) data management and reporting. Included in the report was a recommendation to develop long-range strategic plans.
Today’s announcement is the culmination of these recommendations. The Strategic Plan lists NARMS’ accomplishments since its 1996 inception, strategic goals and objectives and challenges and opportunities.
NARMS has established four strategic goals. These goals build on progress made since NARMS’ inception, with special emphasis on the recommendations made by the FDA Science Board subcommittee review in 2007.
- To develop, implement and optimize a shared database, with advanced data acquisition, analysis, and reporting tools;
- To make sampling more representative and more applicable to trend analysis;
- To strengthen collaborative research projects; and
- To support international activities that promote food safety, especially those that promote mitigation of the spread of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria and resistance determinants.