To study the contamination of pathogenic bacteria in food and their resistance to antibiotics, and to find the dominant epidemic strains in Ningbo.Methods Direct separation and culture enrichment were both used for pathogen isolation. The identification of bacteria was performed by Vitek 2 compact and API method. Sub-typing of bacterial was performed by serology and PFGE. Antibiotics resistances were tested by Kirby-Bauer method. Antibiotic resistance genes were detected by PCR. Results 7 categories and 12 kinds of bacteria (2 331 strains) were detected from 6 812 food samples. Most of them were pathogenic Vibrio, the second prevalent was Salmonella, and the third was Aeromonas. Vibrio parahaemolyticus was the major epidemic foodborne pathogenic strain in Ningbo. The detection rate had significant difference (P<0.01) compared to other pathogens. 10 serum groups and 29 PFGE types were identified, in which O6 and O5 serum groups and type 1 of PFGE were the dominant epidemic. Pathogenic bacteria detected were sensitive to most antibiotics. There were three Aeromonas strains which were resistant to multi-drug with aacc genes. Conclusion Foodborne pathogenic bacteria in Ningbo were various. All categories of pathogenic bacteria had their dominant epidemic strains, while Vibrio parahaemolyticus was the major contributor of foodborne diseases. Serotype and PFGE typing of bacteria could be applied to find their dominant epidemic strains, but either of them had certain limitations. The broad-spectrum antibiotic treatment was effective for foodborne bacterial illness.