AbstractGenetic variation of ten chicken breeds, including nine native breeds and one introduced breed Yellow Bantam from France, was studied using eight microsatellite markers covering seven chromosomes. A total of 54 alleles were detected from eight microsatellite loci, and the average number of alleles per locus was 6.75. All microsatellite loci were highly polymorphic, with the mean PIC ranging from 0.5071 to 0.7434. All populations showed high levels of heterozygosity with the lowest value of 0.5564 for Yellow Bantam and the highest value of 0.7135 for Xianju chickens. A dendrogram was constructed based on DA distance. The ten populations grouped into three clusters: the introduced breed formed a separate branch, while the second branch comprised Chahua chickens and Gushi chickens, and the third branch included the other seven native chicken breeds. The results may be useful as an initial guide in evaluating the level of genetic variation, developing conservation strategies and predicting heterosis.