A total of 206 strains of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from bovine clinical and subclinical mastitis in Argentina during 1996 to 1998 were investigated for their in vitro susceptibility to several antimicrobial agents. Minimum inhibitory concentrations that inhibit 90% of the strains tested reported in micrograms per milliliters were: 1.5, 0.5, 0.75, 1.50, 0.75, 1.0 and 0.125 for penicillin, oxacillin, cephalothin, gentamicin, erythromycin, clindamycin and ampicillin-sulbactam, respectively. Resistance was detected in 83 (40.3%), 24 (11.6%), 16 (7.7%) and 7 (3.4%) S. aureus isolates for penicillin, erythromycin, pirlimycin and gentamicin, respectively. No resistance was detected for oxacillin, cephalothin and ampicillin-sulbactam. Results indicated that S. aureus isolates in Argentina exhibited high resistance to penicillin of all antimicrobial agents tested.