An investigation was carried out to survey the prevalence of Marek’s disease virus serotype 1 (MDV-1) on unvaccinated healthy backyard chicken flocks from four districts in Cantho city and to analyze the genetic characterization of the meq gene. A total of 353 feather follicle samples were collected from 50 unvaccinated chicken flocks for Marek’s disease to investigate prevalent MDV-1 by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The four represent strains were chosen for meq gene sequencing. The results revealed that 26 out of 353 samples were positive for MDV-1 accounting for 7.37%. There were significant differences in the prevalence of MDV-1 on chickens among districts (P