This study was carried nut to obtain the information needed for the study of low-cholesterol animal food products. Cholesterol-degrading bacteria were isolated from several animal foods such as pork fat, chicken fat, beef fat, beef liver, butter, egg yolk, Mozzarella cheese, and Cheddar cheese by using the medium containing cholesterol as a sole carbon source. Approximately 120 bacterial strains were isolated in the preliminary screening. The cholesterol-degrading ability of these isolates was determinated by using thin-layer chromatography(TLC), among which 19 isolates having the cholesterol-degrading ability were selected. And the cholesterol-degradation by 19 isolates was tested with HPLC, among which the isolate C-5 had the highest cholesterol-degrading ability. Morphological, biochemical, and cultural characteristics revaaled that the isolate C-5 belonged to the genus Kurthia. The optinuatn temperature for the cholesterol-degradation of Kurthia C-5 was 30℃ with 120 strokeslmin in the shaking incubator. Ketrthia C-5 degraded cholesterol almost completely via 4-cholesten-3-one(4CO) into other compounds in the optimum condition. The addition of skim milk, glucose, and peptone into the medium had little effect on cholesterol degradation.