A study conducted by the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) has reported a noticeable increase in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Campylobacter to certain antibiotics over the last two decades; however, there has not been a significant increase since 2014. The findings are based on testing of retail chicken meat samples, as well as broilers at slaughter, throughout the UK from 2001–2020.
The study found that resistance to quinolones (ciprofloxacin and nalidixic acid) and tetracycline was common in C. jejuni and C. coli isolates. A 13 percent and 47 percent increase in the prevalence of C. jejuni isolates with AMR to ciprofloxacin was observed during 2001–2005 and 2011–2018, respectively. Resistance to ciprofloxacin also increased in C. coli isolates, from 18 percent during 2001–2005 and 48 percent during 2016–2018. However, no significant increases in resistance to ciprofloxacin were observed after 2014. As of 2020, whole genome sequencing (WGS) data predicts resistance to ciprofloxacin in 52.9 percent of C. jejuni isolates and 46.3 percent of C. coli isolates.