This study highlights the incidence of resistance and the presence of plasmids in human and food isolates of Aeromonas in Brazil. A total of 83 Aeromonas spp. strains (28 isolated from human and 55 from fresh lettuce) were studied. Thirty-five were identified as A. hydrophila complex and 48 as A. caviae complex. All strains were shown to be susceptible to imipenem, amikacin, gentamicin, tobramycin and ciprofloxacin by the disk diffusion method. Resistance to antimicrobial agents was observed in strains of both food and clinical origin. The food strains were resistant to ampicillin/sulbactam, cefoxitin and tetracycline, while the clinical strains presented resistance to ampicillin/sulbactam, cefotaxime, ceftazidime, cefoxitin, sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim, chloramphenicol and tetracycline. The minimal inhibitory concentrations of chloramphenicol, tetracycline and sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim were tested by agar dilution. Thirteen strains isolated from vegetables were resistant to tetracycline (MIC 16 microg ml-1). Two A. hydrophila strains and one A. caviae strain presented extracromosomal DNA (3 and 15 kb plasmids, respectively). The tetracycline resistance phenotype determinant was related to the 15 kb plasmid according to cure and transformation experiments.