Canine adenovirus type 1 (CAdV‐1) is the etiologic agent of fox encephalitis, and a virus strain from fox encephalitis is isolated and related research are conducted. In this experiment, the results showed that the F1301 strain was confirmed to be the CAdV‐1. The whole genome of the CAdV‐1 F1301 strain isolated from fox was 30,535 bp and had higher homology to the other reported CAdV‐1 strains. After 0, 12, and 36 h of CAdV‐1 infection, the difference gene of the 592 long noncoding RNA and 11,215 microRNA were involved in cell responses to CAdV‐1 infection through the PI3K‐AKT, Wnt, Herpes simplex, hepatitis C, and Epstein–Barr virus infection pathway in Madin–Darby canine kidney cell line (MDCK). The results indicate that the biological characterization of the CAdV‐1 and the MDCK cell‐CAdV‐1 interaction are clarified.