Abstract: According to the conservative gene sequences of classical and novel waterfowl reovirus sigma A submitted in GenBank， a pair of universal primers were designed to carry out one\|step RT\|PCR amplification for detecting Muscovy duck reovirus. The PCR reaction condition was optimized and the ultimate one\|step RT\|PCR method had been established. A 436\|bp PCR product was specifically amplified from 1 classical and 4 new waterfowl\|origin reovirus strains with high sensitivity of 36 TCID50 viruses，however， no product could obtain from duck hepatitis A virus， duck enteritis virus， Newcastle disease virus， Tembusu virus， Muscovy duck parvovirus， egg drop syndrome virus and H9N2 subtype avian influenza virus. With the established method， out of 224 clinical specimens from sick flocks of birds during 2011-2012， a total of 56 were positive for reovirus. The positive incidences of Muscovy ducklings， ducklings and goslings were 595%（44/74）， 11%（9/82）and 44%（3/68）， respectively. The results demonstrated that reovirus infection were mainly epidemic in Muscovy duck.

Key words: Muscovy duck reovirus, RT\, PCR, σA gene, universal detection method