Abstract: Duck hepatitis A virus 1(DHAV-1),FJ-12-20,was isolated from a dead pigeon in Fujian.The strain,which lacked the hemagglutination activity,was identified by using the specific primers of DHAV-1,against those of the duck Tembusu virus,duck reovirus,duck parvirus and goose parvirus.Some Cherry Valley ducks and Muscovy ducks died after being challenged by the allantoic fluid containing FJ-12-20.Those ducks characterized with overt lesions of duck hepatitis.The virus was also successfully recovered from the infected ducks,and confirmed by reverse transcription-PCR.Sequence analysis revealed a high homology(93.5%-99%) existed between FJ-12-20 and DHAV-1 from GenBank.A significantly lower homology(78.4%),on the other hand,was found between FJ-12-20 and the standard strain of DHAV-2 or DHAV-3.Phylogenetic analysis showed that FJ-12-20 was close to DHAV-1,and all of these viruses could be subdivided into an isolated cluster.