No Change in Risk for Antibiotic-Resistant Salmonellosis from Beef, United States, 2002–2010

Restricting antibiotic use in food production animals is a target for reducing antimicrobial drug–resistant infections in humans. To estimate the probability of antibiotic-resistant nontyphoidal salmonellosis per meal made with beef during 2002–2010, we used US surveillance data. Applying data for nontyphoidal Salmonella in raised-without-antibiotics cattle, we tested the effect of removing antibiotic use from all beef cattle production. We found an average of 1.2 antibiotic-resistant nontyphoidal salmonellosis cases per 1 million beef meals made with beef initially contaminated with antibiotic-resistant nontyphoidal Salmonella at slaughter or retail and 0.031 cases per 1 million meals irrespective of beef contamination status. Neither outcome showed sustained change except for increases in 2003 and 2009 (>98% confidence) when larger or more outbreaks occurred. Switching all beef production to a raised-without-antibiotics system may not have a significant effect on antibiotic-resistant nontyphoidal salmonellosis (94.3% confidence).