Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) is responsible for the annual million-dollar loss in the poultry industry worldwide. This research aimed at investigating the occurrence and antimicrobial pattern of APEC among scavenging local chickens. A total of 400 cloacal and oropharyngeal swabs were obtained, out of which 192 Escherichia coli were isolated. By use of virulence factor profiling, these 192 samples were screened for the presence of 16 virulence factors by multiplex PCR. All 192 samples harbored at least one of the 16 virulence genes and 19 of them carried at least four, making them APEC. The virulence traits ibeA, iss, traT and chuA were observed to lead the chart with percentages of 84.21, 78.95, 63.16 and and 52.63 respectively. In the pathogenesis of APEC, Iron acquisition, serum resistance, toxins and invasins were found to be very significant (P<0.05). The antimicrobial sensitivity testing, 10.52% of the strains showed multi-drug resistance. All the isolates were sensitive to gentamycin and imipenem drugs whiles none of them were sensitive to cephalothin. Occurrence of virulence strains of APEC in Morogoro region of Tanzania is alarming.