Abstract: A Newcastle Disease Virus isolate named JN08 was collected from pigeon in Shandong. F gene of the isolate was cloned and sequenced to study its molecular characterization and hereditary variation. JN08 purified by plaque assay could form typical cytopathic effect. The deduced amino acid sequence of F gene showed that the virus shared a velogenic motif 112RRQKRF117 at the cleavage site. Phylogenetic analysis showed that JN08 and most of the viruses derived from pigeon belonged to genotype VI. For F gene of the isolate JN08，the homologies of the deduced amino acid sequences were 89.9%, 89.7%, 90.4%, 89.7%, 91.3% and 92.8% respectively，compared with strains of LaSota（Ⅱ），B1（Ⅱ），Bingham（Ⅱ），TEX-48（Ⅱ），Ulster67（I）and F48E9（Ⅲ）；the homologies of the deduced amino acid sequences were 91.3%，94.6%，94.8%，95.1% and 94.0% for isolates of P1-03，CH98-98, JS1-06，PB01-96 and GZ-07 from host pigeon in China; the homologies of the deduced amino acid sequences were 96.2%，93.8%，98.0%，96.8%，97.1%，96.8%，96.8% and 98.4% respectively for pigeon-origin isolates of Capital3-97，Tigre6-99，1166-02，IT227-97，2736-00，NY-84，TX3503-04 and 248VB-98 overseas. There was a closer genetic relationship between JN08 isolate and foreign epidemic strains that all belonged to the same gene subtype than host pigeon strains in China.

Key words: pigeon, Newcastle disease virus, F gene, molecular characterization