The molecular and pathogenic properties of avian influenza virus (A/duck/Hubei/216/1985/H7N8) isolated from Hubei Province of China in 1985 were characterized.The hemagglutinin gene (HA) of Dk/Hb/216/85/H7N8 had the multiple amino acid se-quences (-PEIPKGRG-) at the connecting peptide between HA1 and HA2, which is considered to be a distinguishing molecular characteristic of low pathogenicity.The key sites of host markers among the genes (M, NP, NS, PA and PB2) of Dk/Hb/ 216/85/H7N8 were similar to those of...