For rapid and sensitive measurement of antiviral activities, application of a recombinant virus containing firefly luciferase gene was attempted. Recombinant human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) containing luciferase gene driven by HCMV late gene pp28 promoter (HCMV/pp28-luc) was used to test the antiviral activities of three known compounds and the result was compared with results from the conventional plaque assay for measuring the production of infectious viruses. When human fibroblast cells were infected with HCMV/pp28-luc, luciferase activity was observed at 2 days after infection and reached maximum at 6 days after infection, whereas the production of infectious virus was maximal at 4 days after infection. The antiviral activities of ganciclovir, acyclovir, and papaverine were measured in HFF cells infected with HCMV/PP28-luc and the luciferase activity was compared with the infectious virus titers. Luciferase activity decreased as the concentration of ganciclovir or papaverine increased, while there was a slight decrease in luciferase activity with acyclovir. The level of the decrease in Luciferase activity was comparable to the level of decrease in the production of infectious virus. Therefore, the antiviral assay using recombinant virus HCMV/pp28-luc resulted in sensitivity similar to the conventional plaque assay with a significant reduction in assay time.