Abstract: In present study, a pair of primer was designed according to the mRNA sequence of chicken GDF-5 gene that offered by GenBank(Accession No: AF123389). The eighth generation population of NEAU broiler lines divergently selected for abdominal fat were used. Body weight and body composition traits were measured in the population. SNPs among individuals were detected by DNA sequencing, and PCR-SSCP method was then developed to screen the population. A C/T mutation at the position of the 84 bp of GDF-5 gene exon 1 was found, and three genotypes were detected in the population, the sequence of AA genotype was consistent with the GenBank(Accession No: AF123389), that is C, while the BB genotype is T. The correlation analysis between the C84T polymorphism of the GDF5 gene exon1 and traits was carried out using the appropriate statistic model. The least square analysis showed that the AA birds had significant metatarsus circle than AB birds (P<0.05), the metatarsus claw weight and metatarsus claw percentage of the AA and AB birds were much higher than that of BB birds(P<0.05), the femur length and weight of the AB birds were much longer and heavier than that of the BB birds(P<0.05). It implied that GDF-5 gene could be a candidate locus or linked to a major gene to significantly affect growth and skeletogenesis traits in chicken.