In this report, the cDNA sequences of Shaoxing (SX) and Muscovy (MV) duck IL-2 were cloned, then recombinant duck IL-2 (rduIL-2) was produced in prokaryotic expression system. In vitro bioactivity of rduIL-2 was determined by lymphocyte proliferation assay and in vivo bioactivity of rduIL-2 was assessed by vaccine immunization. Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and polyclonal antibodies (pAbs) specific for rduIL-2 were generated and characterized by ELISA, Western blot and neutralizing assays. The cDNA contains an open reading frame (ORF) of 420-base pairs encoding a protein of 140 amino acids (aa) with a putative signal peptide of 21aa. The His-duIL-2 fusion protein was recognized in Western blot by mAb against chicken IL-2 (chIL-2), but not by mAbs against human IL-2 and mouse IL-2. Recombinant duIL-2 induces in vitro proliferation of Con A-stimulated duck splenocytes in MTT assay and strengthens duck immune responses induced by vaccinating the inactivated oil emulsion vaccine against avian influenza virus. Polyclonal antibodies and mAb 2B3 against rduIL-2 were shown to have effective neutralizing ability by inhibiting the biological activities of both recombinant duIL-2 and endogenous duIL-2. Despite the fact that duck and chicken IL-2s only share identity of 55.0-56.7% in amino acid sequence, duck and chicken IL-2 molecules displayed similar cross-priming activity in in vitro lymphocyte proliferation assays. The results, at the first time, indicated that rduIL-2 has the potential to be used as an immunoadjuvant for enhancing vaccine efficacy and an immunotherapeutic, and the mAbs against rduIL-2 further facilitate basic immunobiological studies of the role of IL-2 in avian immune system.