The paper presents results on the relatedness of Staphylococcus aureus strains colonizing the upper respiratory tract isolated from healthy persistent carriers. Genotyping was carried out using two methods--multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeat fingerprinting (MLVF) and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). By comparison of the results obtained by both methods, good correlations between MLVF and PFGE genotyping of strains isolated from the asymptomatic carriers were observed. Further studies are needed to evaluate methods useful for genotyping of S. aureus strains circulating in the community.