Guidance on the safety assessment of Enterococcus faecium in animal nutrition

This Guidance document is intended to provide a method to identify Enterococcus faecium strains belonging to a sub-population of bacteria isolated from clinical specimens. Differentiation is based on susceptibility to ampicillin and the absence of three genetic markers associated with the clinical isolates. In the view of the FEEDAP Panel any strain of E. faecium demonstrating a resistance to ampicillin greater than 2 mg/L or possessing any of the three marker genes should not be used as a feed additive.