A total of 94 clinical isolates of the Bacteroides fragilis group was tested for susceptibility to metronidazole, chloramphenicol, clindamycin, cefoxitin, cefotetan, cefmetazole, moxalactam, mezlocillin, amoxicllin-clavulanic acid, and imipenem. All the strains tested were susceptible to imipenem, metronidazole, amoxicillinclavulanic acid, and chloramphenicol. The rate of resistance to clindamycin was 21%. The results of this study demonstrate a difference in resistance rates from one species of the B. fragilis group to another.During the last few years, anaerobic bacteria have shown an increase in resistance to most of the traditionally used antimicrobial agents and some of the newer beta-lactam agents (8,12,14,24 Tables 1 and 2. ,B-Lactamase production was detected in 95% of strains.All the strains tested were susceptible to metronidazole and chloramphenicol. Imipenem and amoxicillin-clavulanic acid were the most active beta-lactam drugs and had similar activities against all species of the B. fragilis group. No resistance was found.Mezlocillin showed good activity with low resistance rates for the entire group (3%) as well as for the individual species. The inhibitory activity of mezlocillin was found to be lowest against B. ovatus, with a resistance rate of 10%.The resistance rate of the B. fragilis group to clindamycin was 21%. Clindamycin-resistant strains occurred at rates of 50, 30, and 33% in B. thetaiotaomicron, B. ovatus, and B. distasonis, respectively, whereas in B. fragilis the resistance rate was lower (12%) ( Table 2). All the B. vulgatus strains tested were susceptible to clindamycin.The activities of cefoxitin, cefotetan, and moxalactam were comparable for the B. fragilis group, with MICs for 90% of the strains of 16, 32, and 16 ,ug/ml, respectively. Cefmetazole was less active; the MIC for 90% of the strains was 64 p,g/ml. As reported previously (3,8,16, 26) (Table 2).The results of this study indicate that several of the new beta-lactam agents are effective in vitro against the B. fragilis group. As expected, chloramphenicol and metronidazole were uniformly effective against all 94 isolates. Imipenem was the most effective beta-lactam drug in this study; the MIC for 90% of the strains was 0.5 ,ug/ml, and we detected no resistance, which was in accordance with the 671