Viral infection is a global public health threat causing nearly half of the incidence rate of major infectious diseases in China. Establishment of an animal model to mimic the progression of viral infectious diseases in humans is of great significance to study the pathogenesis and prevention of viral infectious diseases.Tree shrews, as the close relatives of primates, have a higher similarity with humans in physiology, biochemistry, genomics than rodents. Tree shrew has unique characteristics that render it a potentially advantageous animal model, including small body size, short reproductive cycle and life span, easy handling, low maintenance cost, and it can infect a variety of viruses related to human diseases. In this paper, the biological advantages of tree shrew as a novel animal model of viral infectious diseases are summarized, including distribution and evolutionary status, biology and physiology. In addition, the latest application of tree shrew in the research of many viral infectious diseases such as in hepatitis B virus, hepatitis A virus and other virus were compared and summarized.