The Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine has announced a new National Antimicrobial Monitoring System Strategic Plan, "dedicated to the protection of human and animal health through integrated monitoring of antimicrobial resistance among enteric bacteria."

NARMS has four strategic goals: to develop, implement and optimize a shared database; to make sampling more representative and more applicable to trend analysis; to strengthen collaborative research; and to support international activities that promote food safety. The hope is that things like more representative sampling will catch more cases of contaminated petfood products before they hit store shelves. In addition, more oversight could check the conditions of food animals, preventing the overmedication that can lead to antimicrobial resistance.

The revised plan incorporates several recommendations made beginning with the initial program review in March 2007.