Abstract: In order to characterize the epidemiology of chicken Newcastle disease （ND） in Yichun region of Jiangxi Province, epidemiological investigations were carried out in 31 commercial chicken farms with suspected prevalence of ND distributed in 5 main chicken production counties of Yichun region, including Zhangshu, Fengcheng, Gaoan, Yichun and Wanzai, by using on-the-spot inquiries method, follow-up investigation method, laboratory examination method and challenge test during the period of March 2016 and March 2017. The results showed that the prevalence of ND in chicken farms in Yichun region was observed in the four seasons, among which higher prevalence was found in winter, followed by spring, summer and autumn; no significance in days of age of chicken flocks with ND was observed, and the prevalence of ND was found in chickens with different feeding stages; the incidence of ND in the surveyed chicken flocks was 20.1%-30.8%, the mortality was 9.0%-25.4%, and the dropping rate of egg production was 15.3%-38.8%. Furthermore, Newcastle disease virus （NDV） isolation was carried out with 214 clinical samples recovered from the surveyed commercial chicken farms using SPF chick embryos. A total of 27 viral strains with hemagglutinating activity were obtained and 23 of them were identified as NDV by using hemagglutination assay （HA）, hemagglutination inhibition assay （HI） and serum neutralization assay. Except for 2 NDV strains （virulence could not be determined）, the other 21 NDV strains were demonstrated as highly virulent strains. Thirty-day-old non-immunied chickens were artificially challenged with the 21 highly virulent strains. The challenged chickens exhibited typical clinical symptoms and pathological changes of ND with incidence and mortality of 80%-100% and 60%-100%, respectively.