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A total of 166 faecal specimens from diarrheic cattle were collected in China for detection of bovine kobuvirus (BKV) by reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) targeting the region a portion of the 3D nonstructural protein, with an amplicon size of 631 bp. The RNA corresponding to the BKV 3D region was detected in 34.9 % of faecal samples (58/166) in four major dairy-cattle-production areas in China, and sequence analysis based on the partial 3D sequences (35/58) indicated that the Chinese BKVs shared 88.9-96.2 % nucleotide sequence identity to BKV reference strains. Further phylogenetic analysis based on the complete VP1-encoding sequences (17/35) revealed that the Chinese BKVs shared 81-83.4 % nucleotide sequence identity to the U-1 strain, and these Chinese BKV strains, together with the U-1 strain, are apparently divided into four lineages, representing four genotypes of BKV, designated as A, B, C and D. Our results show that BKV infection is widely distributed, with high genetic diversity in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]