Objective To investigate the effect of microbiological culture-positive donor liver on recovery and prognosis after liver transplantation. Methods Ninety-one liver transplant recipients receiving organ donation from adult citizens with microbiological examination data of donor liver after death were screened out from our center between July 2016 and March 2017 using a retrospective case-control study. Microbiological culture results of donor liver tissues and preservation solution were analyzed. According to culture results，recipients were divided into positive group and negative group. Based on different specimens，the positive recipients weredivided into liver tissue-positive group，preservation solution-positive group and liver tissue- and preservation solution-positive group. The presence of the same infected pathogens after liver transplantation was analyzed. Hospital stay and perioperative mortality after transplantation were compared among different groups. Results In the 91 cases of donors and organ preservation solutions，there were a total of 26 cases showed positive culture results. Among them，17 cases showed positive culture results in both donors and organ preservation solutions， 4 cases presented positive culture results in only liver tissues and 5 cases demonstrated positive culture results in only preservation solutions; 7 cases showed positive in both bacterial and fungal culture，13 cases presented positive in only bacterial culture and 6 cases demonstrated positive in only fungal culture. Among 20 cases of positive bacterial culture，gram-negative bacteria was found in 11（55%）cases and gram-positive bacteria in 9（45%）cases. Gram-negative bacteria and gram-positive bacteria were not detected at the same time. As for bacterial colonization，the top three were baumanii，klebsiella pneumonia and enterococcus faecalis，respectively. As for fungal colonization，the top three were Candida albicans，Candida tropicalis and Aspergillus，respectively. Among the recipients with liver transplantation，8 recipients showed perioperative death，5 were positive with microbiological examination. In the positive group，infection was confirmed in 6 cases after transplantation，presenting an incidence of 23.1%，and death occurred in 2 cases，with a mortality of 33%. In the positive group，there were 7 recipients with both fungi- and bacteria-positive，among which 4 recipients died after transplantation（mortality ：57%），including 1 recipient who died from infection and 3 recipients who died from multiple organ failure caused by poor recovery of liver function. Hospital stay after transplantation was（27 ± 16）d in the positive group and（17 ± 7）d in the negative group（P ＜ 0.05）. Perioperative mortality rate was 19.2%（5/26）and 4.6%（3/65）in the positive group and the negative group，respectively（P ＜ 0.05）. Conclusion Bacterial or fungal colonization in donor livers and their preservation solutions is not directly related to infection after liver transplantation，but it is significantly correlated with donor-derived infection，delayed recovery of donor liver after transplantation，and prolonged hospital stay after transplantation. Donor livers with fungal colonization combined with bacterial colonization show significantly increased mortality rate after liver transplantation.