EUCAST: News

Public consultation on Guidance for Antimicrobial Agent Developers Considering a Modification of The Standard Reference Method for Susceptibility Testing.

Mon, 11 May 2026 14:30:36 +0200

A EUCAST Standard Operating Procedure (SOP 14) offering guidance on the development of modified testing methods for new agents is open for consultation. The SOP has been developed in conjunction with CLSI, whose identical document is published under the title “Guidance for Antimicrobial Agent Developers Considering a Modification of The Standard Reference Method for Susceptibility Testing. 1st ed. CLSI supplement M23S4”. Deadline for comments is 8 June 2026.

New Public Consultation on Proposed Breakpoints for antimicrobial agents against further Species of Anaerobic Bacteria

Mon, 04 May 2026 10:20:08 +0200

Breakpoints for antimicrobial agents against the following species are proposed: Clostridium innocuum, Clostridium ramosum, Clostridium septicum, Clostridium tertium, Cutibacterium avidum, Finegoldia magna, Parvimonas micra, Peptostreptococcus anaerobius and Peptoniphilus spp.. For Fusobacterium, common breakpoints for F. necrophorum and F. nucleatum are proposed which would result in revised breakpoints for some agents against F. necrophorum. An appendix presents the data to support the breakpoint proposals. Deadline for comments is 8 June 2026.

New Public Consultation on Meropenem Breakpoints for Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter species

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 13:16:42 +0200

Following a review of the comments submitted to the recent consultation on carbapenem breakpoints for Gram-negative bacteria, a further proposal on meropenem breakpoints on Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter species is published. Please submit any comments using the form on the Public Consultations webpage, deadline is 1 June 2026.

Guidance Document on Cephalosporins for Staphylococcus aureus Infection updated

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:39:16 +0200

The Guidance Document on Cephalosporins for Staphylococcus aureus Infection was updated to include further advice for oral antimicrobial agents.

Update to warning on testing of amphotericin B

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 17:55:53 +0200

The Antifungal Susceptibility Testing (AFST) subcommittee has updated the warning regarding testing of amphotericin B against C. auris. Advice on several commercially available products have been updated.

Publication of new breakpoints for fungi

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 17:48:02 +0200

Version 12.1 of the fungi breakpoint tables is now published which includes correction of typographical errors for voriconazole breakpoints against Candida albicans and C. dubliniensis.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) updated

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 13:09:00 +0200

The frequently asked questions document has recently been updated to include questions and answers relating to methods and breakpoints.

Public consultation on a working protocol on MIC determination for Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM)

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +0100

A public consultation is open on a new working protocol for determining MICs of amikacin, clarithromycin and azithromycin on reference strains of Mycobacterium avium ATCC 700898 and Mycobacterium abscessus ATCC19977, using the EUCAST Reference protocol for MIC determination of anti-mycobacterial agents against isolates of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). Closing date for comments is 17 April 2026.

EUCAST General Committee at ESCMID-Global 2026

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 13:07:00 +0100

Members of the EUCAST Steering Committee will present the achievements of 2025 and discuss the topics for attention in 2026. Presentations from the subcommittees on susceptibility testing of fungi (AFST) and mycobacteria (AMST) as well as Veterinary Subcommittee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (VetCAST), Subcommittee on WGS and Phenotypic AST (WGS) and Subcommittee on Phage susceptibility testing (PST). This is an open meeting where all are welcome!

Call out to National Antimicrobial Committees (NACs)

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 16:23:25 +0100

EUCAST will soon be arranging a webinar to communicate with NACs. If you have an existing NAC in your country, then please check that the details on the EUCAST website are correct. If your country does not have a NAC but wants to develop one, then please see our website on how to. Please send details of any new NAC using the button on the NAC webpage.

Updated MIC:ZD correlations published

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 08:00:00 +0100

Updated versions of MIC:ZD correlations have been published for relevant bacterial species. These correlations form the basis of validation of zone diameter criteria for disk diffusion methodology.

Revised breakpoints for carbapenems (with and without inhibitors) plus ceftazidime-avibactam

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 12:02:49 +0100

A public consultation on revised carbapenem (with and without inhibitors) and ceftazidime-avibactam breakpoints against Gram-negative bacteria has been published. The revised breakpoints are presented along with rationale and evidence for the changes. Please comment via the consultation form….

A Thank you to Gunnar Kahlmeter, the Founder and Architect of EUCAST

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 16:53:40 +0100

In 2001 Professor Gunnar Kahlmeter was tasked to restructure EUCAST, and became the chair of the organization between 2002-2012, followed by a period first as clinical data co-ordinator and then as technical data co-ordinator until the end of 2025. He was also the founder of the EUCAST Development Lab and served as its director until 2024. Professor Kahlmeter also developed the EUCAST website into an internationally esteemed library on everything related to antimicrobial susceptibility testing. He served as its webmaster until 2025.

Professor Kahlmeter has played a pivotal role in international antimicrobial susceptibility testing and clinical breakpoint setting over a period of a quarter of a century, and he served in similar roles both for the Swedish Reference Group for Antibiotics and the British Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. He is known internationally for introducing concepts such as epidemiological cut-off values, devising the EUCAST public consultation process, revising the EUCAST definition of the I-category, introducing the concept of the area of technical uncertainty (ATU), and for developing rapid 4 – 6 hour phenotypic susceptibility testing directly from positive blood culture bottles.

Starting from 2026, he has stepped down from his duties as technical data co-ordinator in the EUCAST Steering Committee but will continue to contribute to the subcommittee for determining wild type MIC distributions and the setting of epidemiological cut-off values and to be part of the antimycobacterial subcommittee. We thank him wholeheartedly for his efforts for EUCAST for over a quarter of a century.

Update on version 16.0 Breakpoint Tables for bacteria/mycobacteria

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 14:48:00 +0100

Watch the webinar now on ESCMID Media. Log in with your ESCMID account, or create a free 'registered user' account to watch.

Updated EUCAST RAST breakpoints, methodology and correlation and validation documents published.

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 15:17:51 +0100

Updated versions of the RAST breakpoint tables, the methods and QC documents and the RAST MIC:ZD correlations for all relevant species, including new developed data for S. enterica.

EUCAST wish to contact NACs; request for information

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 13:58:44 +0100

In 2026, the EUCAST Steering Committee wish to improve communication with all NACs to create a closer network for education and exchange of information. If your country has an established National Antimicrobial Committee, we would like to request you get in touch with us via the button below.

Submit NACs details

New “Routine and extended internal quality control for MIC determination and agar dilution for yeasts, moulds and dermatophytes as recommended by EUCAST”

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 15:07:53 +0100

The EUCAST AFST have recently published v 8.0 of the routine and extended quality control ranges and targets for MIC determination in yeasts, moulds and dermatophytes, including revised QC ranges for fluconazole against CNM-CL F8555 and separate sheets for the two strains C. albicans ATCCC 64548 and ATCC 64550.

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How to interpret MICs of amphotericin B, echinocandins and flucytosine against Candida auris (Candidozyma auris) according to the newly established EUCAST breakpoints

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 12:05:38 +0100

M.C. Arendrup et al. / Clinical Microbiology and Infection 32 (2026) 56—61.
EUCAST guidance on how to interpret EUCAST MICs against C. auris has been released in CMI as open access article.

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Version 16.0 of the breakpoint tables: what’s new

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 08:00:00 +0100

Version 16.0 of the breakpoint tables include new breakpoints for gepotidacin against E. coli, S. saprohyticus and E. faecalis, revised breakpoints for trimethoprim and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole for several species, restriction of daptomycin breakpoints to S. aureus only, a revised comment for carbapenem interpretation in Enterobacterales when a carbapenemase is detected, revised breakpoints for ampicillin and amoxicillin in endocarditis and meningitis against S. pneumoniae and Breakpoints for M. tuberculosis and bedaquiline determined using the EUCAST reference method.

Minor change to the EUCAST Screening method for the detection of azole and echinocandin resistance in Aspergillus using antifungal-containing agar plates, exemplified by A. fumigatus

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 08:48:46 +0100

A minor error was corrected in in table 1, page 13 of the EDef 10.2 document, the new version (10.3) has been published.

Webinar to update on version 16.0 Breakpoint Tables for bacteria/mycobacteria

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 08:00:00 +0100

A webinar will be held on 20 January 2026 (12:00-13:00 CET) to highlight any changes in the new breakpoint tables. Members of EUCAST will expand on the changes made to version 16.0 of the breakpoint tables.

Learn more

Consultation on minor changes to version 16.0 Breakpoint Tables for bacteria/mycobacteria

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 08:58:00 +0100

A EUCAST public consultation is now open detailing two minor changes to version 16.0 of the breakpoint tables. Closing date for comments is 14 December 2025.

Consultation on version 16.0 Breakpoint Tables for bacteria/mycobacteria

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 08:57:00 +0100

The new breakpoint tables for bacteria/mycobacteria is now available for public consultation (on correction of formatting issues only). Closing date for comments is 14 December 2025. The breakpoint tables for 2026 (V16) will be published in the first week of January 2026.

New updated guidance document on Endocarditis published.

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 16:19:52 +0100

The updated version of the Infective Endocarditis guidance document includes clearer instruction for disk diffusion of benzylpenicillin in viridans streptococci testing.

Consultation open on whole genome sequencing (WGS) in antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST).

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 00:01:00 +0100

This consultation includes the findings of the EUCAST subcommittee on the role of whole genome sequencing (WGS) in antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) and will form the basis of a future publication.

Welcome to the new EUCAST website!

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 12:09:00 +0100

We have prepared a short video to help you get familiar with the new layout and features.

Watch video

Updates from EUCAST AFST, October 2025

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 17:32:51 +0200

The following ECOFFs and breakpoints for antifungal agents have been established or revised and are now found in the associated revised rationale documents, the breakpoint document and the ECOFF and breakpoints document available at the EUCAST website:

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MIC distributions and ECOFFs under review

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 14:31:58 +0200

Wild type MIC distributions and ECOFFs for trimethoprim, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and sulfamethoxazole are under review and it is clear that several distributions and ECOFFs will be changed.

Learn more on MIC EUCAST

The farewell of an old webmaster

Sun, 19 Oct 2025 10:46:32 +0200

Within days the EUCAST website will have a new face. Do not worry - you do not have to prepare, change or add anything.

The old webmaster bows out and someone new takes over. I have looked after the website and its transitions for exactly 25 years but have no hand in the most recent transition. I am sure you are in good hands and will enjoy the new website.

EUCAST assures you that all links to pages and documents that you may have used in national manuals, publications, websites, agency documents and references will continue to be valid also after the transistion. Here is an example - an outdated, previous version of a guidance document on tigecycline dosing , which you may or may not have used for national guidance and have not had reason or time to change. All of these will continue to be active and you should not have to experience "dead links".

I will be available for exchange of views on the old and new websites for some time ahead, as usual at gunnar.kahlmeter(at)eucast.org. The success of EUCAST and the usefulness of the website is evident from the statistics updated a few days ago (see the previous News item). Good luck, enjoy and thank you for your support during all these years. /Gunnar Kahlmeter, EUCAST Technical Data Coordinator and EUCAST Webmaster

Pefloxacin screening for fluoroquinolone resistance in Enterobacterales

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 13:47:06 +0200

Fluoroquinolone breakpoints are under review. Shortly there will be a public consultation.

Since industry and users sometimes complain that EUCAST fails to warn of upcoming changes we now emphasize that (a) a change is coming, (b) breakpoints will be reduced further and that (c) screening for fluoroquinolone resistance using pefloxacin will be an integral part of proposed changes. We urge laboratories and manufacturers to familiarise themselves with the pefloxacin screen test (already described in the EUCAST breakpoint tables for Enterobacterales, Salmonella enterica and Vibrio spp). Also contact your suppliers of material to ensure that they are ready to meet your requirements.

EUCAST has checked with several major suppliers, and pefloxacin availability is secured for the foreseeable future.