Objective To investigate the characteristic of integrons and the relationship between integrons and antimicrobial resistance in Shigellaspp.Methods Ninety 5higella strains (83 S. flexneri and 7 S. sonnel) were isolated from the stools of patients in China. Susceptibility to 8 antimicrobials was tested for all isolated strains. PCR, RFLP and sequencing analysis of integrons were applied to all of them.Results High prevalence of multi-drug resistance (95.6%) was identified. Of the isolates 79 (87.8%)carried integrase genes of class 1 integron (3.3%), class 2 integron (10.0%) or both (74.4%). No intβ was detected in the tested isolates. The prevalence of intΩ was significantly higher in isolates with multi-drug resistance to at least 3 antibiotics than that in isolates with resistance to 2 and less antibiotics (P＜0.05). Gene cassettes dfrA17-aadAS, dfrA12-orfF-aadA2 of class 1 integron and dfrA1-sat1-aadA1 of class 2 integron were identified.Conclusion The class 2 integron may play a role in the emergence of multi-drug resistance in Shigella spp.