Objective To detect and evaluate the genetic diversity and differences between SPF golden hamster population and its parent conventional population,and provide useful information and references for quality control of SPF golden hamsters.Methods Microsatellite markers of mice and rat were adopted to develop markers and methods suitable for genetic monitoring for SPF golden hamster population and its parent conventional population from Chengdu Institute of Biological Products by fluorescence-based semiautomated genotyping method.Genetic diversity and differences of the 2 golden hamster populations were analyzed based on the result of microsatellite alleles.Reslts 2 of 18 rats and 2 of 6 mice microsatellite markers amplified polymorphic loci in gold hamster.25 and 20 alleles were detected in the 4 loci,and the average of unbiased expected heterozygosity was 0.4979 and 0.5048 for conventional population and SPF population,respectively.No significant differences of genetic diversity index were found between populations.The Fst per locus was varied from 0.0095 to 0.0367,and the average Fst of all loci was 0.0315,which implied a poor genetic differentiation between populations,and most of the genetic variation existed within populations.Nei's(1972) genetic distance and Nei's(1978) unbiased genetic distance measures between the 2 populations were 0.0678 and 0.0570,respectively,which indicated the close genetic relationship and high genetic identity between them.Above half loci(2/4 and 3/4) for both populations showed significant deviations from HWE,and all deviations were caused by deficiency of heterozygous individuals by using a score test.Conclusion\ From the above mentioned results,genetic variety is mostly kept during the course of producing SPF animals in the conventional population of gold hamsters,and the genetic differences between the conventional population and SPF population are slight,but a fine propagating program may be required in the course of animal production.