Avian infectious bronchitis（IB）is an avian infectious disease caused by infectious bronchitis virus（IBV），mainly leading to diseases of avian respiratory and urogenital system. IBV is highly contagious and can making chickens die，broilers slow down their weight gain，and laying hens decrease their egg production. IBV，with numerous serotypes and genotypes，is prone to mutation，and large antigen differences are available in different genotypic strains，toughening researches and development of vaccines and drugs，and posing certain challenges to the prevention and treatment of the disease. A variety of serological and molecular biological techniques have been used to detect IBV，such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay（ELISA），reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction（RT-PCR），recombinase-aid amplification（RAA），etc. So the detection methods with good sensitivity and specificity as well as new vaccines with high safety and good immunity are required for emerging IBV. The etiology，epidemiology，virus typing，mutation mechanisms and detection methods of IBV were summarized in the paper，with a view to providing a reference for future researches on the disease.