A collaborative agreement established in 1996 with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Drug Administration, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The NARMS program is a national surveillance program that monitors changes in susceptibilities of human and animal enteric bacteria to 17 antimicrobial drugs. The program provides baseline information on prevalence of resistance, allows for detection of small decreases in susceptibility, and predicts trends in time to allow for mitigation.