A method for one-stage rapid identification of the four orthopovirus species, which are pathogenic to humans, involving multiplex polymerase chain reaction (MPCR) was developed. Five pairs of oligonucleotides primers were simultaneously used in the mentioned MPCR assay of orthopoxvirus DNA; one of the pairs was genus-specific, the remaining four primers were species-specific for variola, monkey-pox, cowpox and vaccine-pox. The specificity and sensitivity of the developed method were evaluated through analyzing the DNA samples of 55 orthopoxvirus strains, including samples isolated from human clinical materials.