MAXIMIZING THE KNOWLEDGE GAINED FROM CALIFORNIA SENATE BILL 27 (360G-Wellcome-211493_A_18_Z)

On January 1, 2018, California enacted Senate Bill 27 (SB27), first-of-its-kind and potentially precedent-setting legislation, which will require a veterinarian’s prescription for use of antimicrobial drugs and ban non-therapeutic antimicrobial uses for routine disease prevention and growth promotion in livestock. To assess the effectiveness of this important legislation at reducing antimicrobial resistant bacterial infections in humans, we propose the following specific aims: Aim 1. Quantify the effect of SB27 on E. coli, Campylobacter and Salmonella resistance rates from retail meat. Aim 2. Estimate the proportion of human Campylobacter, Salmonella, and extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli infections caused by strains of food-animal origin in California. Aim 3. Characterize the effect of SB27 on the antimicrobial susceptibility of Campylobacter, Salmonella, and extraintestinal E. coli infections caused by strains of food-animal origin in California. Implementation of SB27 provides a unique natural experiment to assess the effectiveness of restrictive agricultural antimicrobial-use policies at reducing antimicrobial-resistant human infections. The proposed research will have a positive impact by prospectively measuring the effect of this policy on the antimicrobial susceptibility of E. coli (an important colonizing opportunistic pathogen) and Campylobacter and Salmonella (two frank foodborne pathogens) and thereby maximizing the information gained from this singular opportunity