Abstract：The capsid protein gene of Rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) JX/97 strain was cloned and sequenced .The results showed that the nucleotide sequence of the gene was 1 739 nt in length encoding a protein of 580 aa. Variation analysis of the capsid protein gene of JX/97 strains and other 21 published RHDV isolates showed that RHDV had a high degree of conservation, the homology of the amino acids among different isolates exceeded 90%. The results of computer analysis showed that the antigenic region hadn’t changed remarkably in past 20 years. The results of phylogenetic tree analysis showed that all the reference RHDV isolates could be divided into 4 genetic groups and the distant between them appeared to have evolved to different extents, that means during adapting to the special environment, RHDV may form its only biology characteristic gradually.
