The emergence of antimicrobial resistant Enterococcus spp., a leading cause of untreatable nosocomial infection, in food animals and dissemination to humans is a public health concern. The study was conducted to determine the prevalence and antimicrobial resistance, and virulence characteristics of Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium in food animals and meats in Bangladesh. Enterococcus spp., were con rmed using sodA gene speci c PCR, and antimicrobial resistance and virulence properties were characterized by PCR. Enterococcus spp. were recovered from 57% of the collected samples (n=201/352). Farm samples yielded signi cantly higher (p≤0.05) prevalence (62%) compared to retail meat samples (41%) and E. faecalis (52%) was most frequently isolated species. High proportions of isolates exhibited resistance to tetracycline (74%), erythromycin (65%) and cipro oxacin (34%). Fifty-one isolates were vancomycin non-susceptible enterococci (VNSE), of which forty-seven were MDR and 20 were linezolid resistant, a last line drug for VNSE.Virulence factors such as gelatinase (gelE), aggregation factor (asa1) and sex pheromone (cpd) were detected along with vancomycin resistance gene (vanA, vanB and vanC2/C3) in VNSE isolates. The high prevalence of MDR enterococci in food animals and retail meats may lead to infection in consumers with concomitant reduced therapeutic options available for treatment.