The extracellular enzymic activity has been studied of 224 strains of bacteria isolated mainly at 1° from spoiling chickens and turkeys and from poultry processing plants. The isolates comprised 44 strains of pigmented Pseudomonas, 57 strains of nonpigmented Pseudomonas, 29 strains of Ps. putrefaciens, 50 strains of oxidase positive Acinetobacter and 44 strains of oxidase negative Acinetobacter. None of the strains showed any significant activity against dextrin, starch, glycogen, inulin, dextran, xylan or pectin. Proteolytic activity was found mainly amongst 2 groups of pigmented pseudo‐monads, and Ps. putrefaciens. Nuclease activity was found particularly amongst strains of Ps. putrefaciens and the oxidase negative Acinetobacter strains isolated from spoiling poultry. Almost all of the strains showed lipolytic activity when tested with tributyrin and a proportion of strains could also attack chicken fat. This latter property was particularly evident amongst the nonpigmented Pseudomonas strains.