The virulence factors and antibiotic-resistance in enterococci isolated from the clinical samples and hospital environment were determined using standard microbiological methods. A total of 81 clinical samples and 35 environmental samples from a tertiary hospital in Ekiti State, Nigeria, were examined for the presence of Enterococcus spp. Species isolated were identified to include: Enterococcus faecalis (110), Enterococcus faecium (75), Enterococcus gallinarum (39), Enterococcus durans (37) and Enterococcus hirae (33). Enterococccus faecalis has the highest occurrence followed by E. faecium, while E. hirae had the least occurrence. The percentage prevalence of cytolysin (Cyt) was highest in E. gallinarum (74.4%) followed by E. faecalis (68.5%). A total of 49 (44.1%), 19 (48.7%) and 13 (17.3%) among E. faecalis, E. gallinarum and E. faecium, respectively, were positive for the combination of cytolysin (Cyt) and gelatinase (Gel). The presence of Gel with haemaglutinin (Hea) in the isolates was comparably lower than the Cyt and Gel combination. The occurrence of the three pathogenic factors is in this decreasing order: E. faecalis 20 (18.0%), E. faecium 8 (10.7%) and E. gallinarum 2 (5.1%). The susceptibility of isolates was tested against nine antibiotics. All the E. faecium isolates were resistant to cotrimoxazole, ampicillin and chloramphenicol while none was resistant to vancomycin. The highest resistance was observed against cotrimoxazole followed by erythromycin while the least was observed in vancomycin. The highest vancomycin resistance was found among E. faecalis (30.6%) followed by E. durans (18.2%). The resistance of Enterococcus spp. was minimal to vancomycin, ofloxacin and nitrofurantoin, in increasing order, among the tested antibiotics
