European drug agency recommends limiting colistin use in animals to cut resistance in patients

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recommended limiting sales of colistin for use in animals, in new guidance that aims to halt the spread of resistance in patients who receive it as the antibiotic of last resort for multidrug resistant bacterial infections.1

The European Commission asked the EMA to update previous guidance, after reports from several European countries of colistin resistance being transmitted between people by a new mechanism involving the mcr-1 gene. The gene can be transferred between different types of bacteria, …