As an important genetic engineering technique， genome editing has received widespread attention since its emergence. Just a few decades， genome editing has been developed rapidly. From the initial application of zinc finger endonuclease （ZFN） to the proficient utilization of transcription activitor-like effector nuclease（TALEN）， followed by the discovery of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats （CRISPR）， genome editing has continuously promoted the development and advancement of life science during the process of updating and improving itself. This review described the development genome editing along with the composition and mechanism of the CRISPR/Cas9 systems， and then， introduced its application in poultry functional genes and preparation on economically valuable gene model， and discussed the shortcomings of the current CRISPR/Cas9 technology in poultry， aiming to provide reference for the breeding related researches on poultry.