National surveillance of antimicrobial resistant bacteria in raw retail beef, chicken and pork meat, 2022–23

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has published the results of its most comprehensive national surveillance survey of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in raw retail beef, chicken and pork in Australia, sampling over 4 000 products from across all states and territories; the findings show that overall resistance to antibiotics that are critically important to human health remains low, with about two-thirds of bacterial isolates showing no resistance to tested antibiotics, and multidrug resistance generally uncommon, although moderate resistance to ciprofloxacin was detected in some Campylobacter jejuni from chicken — results that provide a valuable baseline for ongoing One Health-aligned monitoring and help assess the effectiveness of current food safety and antibiotic stewardship practices.