Objective   The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of Escherichia coli and Salmonella serovars in retail raw meats obtained from markets. A total of 500 samples of retail raw meat samples of chicken, duck, rabbit, pork, and beef were randomly obtained from ratail stores in 2 supermarkets, 6 farm markets, and 10 street markets in the city of Shenyang, from January 2003 to December 2003 and were examined for the presence of Escherichia coli and Salmonella serovars and the effects on microbial contamination with differences product type, season, and market. All chicken, duck and rabbit carcasses yielded E. coli contamination(100%). while 89% of beef chops and 85% of pork chops were positive for E. coli. About 61% of chicken, 71% of duck and 83% of rabbit carcasses were contaminated with Salmonella. About 40% of pork and 48% of beef chops were positive for Salmonella. Significant differences in the microbial prevalence were observed for supermarket-samples with the lowest contamination, street-market samples showing the highest contamination, and farm-market samples in the middle.