Fecal Coliform (FC) is an indicator pathogen for evaluating safety of land application of sewage sludge In the present study, forty-eight sewage sludge samples were collected from 15 cities in the Yangtze River Delta region Both FC and water content were determined in the fresh samples and in some selected samples when being air-dried for 7, 14, 21 and 28 days, respectively, in order to investigate counts of FC in the sludges, their pollution risks and dynamics following air-drying The results show that the counts of FC in the sludges ranged from 0 to 3.41×10⁶ (MPN g^-1, DW), with an average of 3.79×10⁵ (MPN g^-1, DW) FC was found in 89.6% of the samples River sludges and products thereof were much lower in FC count than the domestic and domestic industrial mixed sewage sludges The counts of FC dropped markedly at first with the time of air-drying but rebounded after 3~4 weeks It can be concluded that majority of the sewage sludges from wastewater treatment plants in the Yangtze River Delta region had pathogenic bacteria, but their counts varied with the wastewater sources, treatments and sludge disposals FC in some sewage sludges exceeded a guidance level of 2×10⁶ (MPN g^-1, DW), indicating potential risk to eco-environmental safety and public health upon land application without appropriate pasteurization.