Abstract:To investigate the antibiotic resistance and the distribution of virulence genes in Enterococcus faecalis isolated from meat and meat products collected from food market in Zigong City, Sichuan Province, and to observe sequence typing(ST)identified by multilocus sequence typing (MLST) among multi-drug resistant Enterococcus faecalis. Methods Enterococcus faecalis strains were isolated from 147 meat samples including raw meats and cooked meats from 17 to 21 April,2013. The antimicrobial susceptibilities of Enterococcus faecalis isolates were determined by automatic bacteriology identification. The presence of four virulence genes (cylA, asa1, gelE and esp) were investigated by polymerase chain reaction(PCR), and ST types were detected in multi-drug resistant isolates. Results A total of 65 isolates were obtained from 147 samples, 58.5%(38/65)of the isolates were resistant to at least one drug. Of all isolates, resistance to tetracycline was the highest (41.5%,27/65), and resistance to rifampicin, chloramphenicol and erythromycin was also fairly high. Moreover, resistance to high concentrations of streptomycin and gentamicin in Enterococcus faecalis isolates were 15.4%(10/65) and 12.3%(8/65), respectively. Strains resistant to penicillin, glycopeptides and lipopeptides were failed to acquire in this study. Four virulence genes which were common in Enterococcus faecalis were distributed in all 65 isolates, and the positive rates of gelE , asa1, esp and cylA were 56.9%(37/65),21.5%(14/65),9.2%(6/65) and 7.7%(5/65), respectively. There were 14 isolates, which showed resistance to three or more antibiotics, belonged to 9 STs mainly comprised of ST16 (n=4), ST81 (n=2) and ST480 (n=2). The profile of resistance and virulence genes were similar in the Enterococcus faecalis isolates with same STs. Conclusion The same ST type of Enterococcus faecalis strains from meat and meat products in Zigong City harbored similar virulence genes and multi-drug resistant pattern, which should be paid attention to the potential threat to human health.