in-cyprus 19 February 2026 - by Marilena Panayi
More than 90% of Campylobacter bacteria sampled from humans in Cyprus are resistant to ciprofloxacin — a key antibiotic for treating serious infections — and the problem has been getting steadily worse for a decade, a new European report has found.
The joint report by the European Food Safety Authority and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control singles out Cyprus as particularly worrying on antimicrobial resistance in food-borne bacteria.
Campylobacter and Salmonella are among the most common bacteria transmitted through food — primarily via raw or undercooked poultry, meat and eggs. They cause gastroenteritis and can lead to more serious complications in vulnerable groups.
For Cyprus in 2024, resistance to tetracyclines in Campylobacter jejuni is also very high, running between 75% and 83.8%. More troubling still, the report flags a statistically significant upward trend in ciprofloxacin resistance in Cyprus over 2014 to 2024 — meaning the problem is not just severe but worsening.
Resistance to erythromycin — the first-line treatment for Campylobacter infections — remains low in Cyprus.
The picture for Salmonella is more mixed. While ciprofloxacin resistance remains high across Europe and is rising in human cases, Cyprus bucked the trend on ampicillin resistance, recording a significant reduction in human cases over 2014 to 2024.
The EU-wide picture
Across the EU, ciprofloxacin resistance in Campylobacter is very high across a large number of member states. In several countries the antibiotic is no longer recommended for treating Campylobacter infections at all. Erythromycin resistance, however, remains low across the bloc.
For Salmonella, high ciprofloxacin resistance is recorded in both humans and food-producing animals across Europe, with an upward trend in human cases in recent years. High resistance is also recorded in ampicillin, tetracyclines and sulphonamides. On the positive side, 19 countries — including Cyprus — recorded a decline in Salmonella ampicillin resistance over the past decade, and 14 recorded a decline in tetracycline resistance.
The report also flags the detection of E. coli strains resistant to carbapenems — last-resort antimicrobials for human medicine — in food-producing animals in some countries.
The report ties the variation in resistance patterns between countries directly to antimicrobial use, agricultural practices and infection prevention measures.
