Statistical analysis showed that the HSD17B13 rs72613567:TA allelic variant can decrease the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients, alcoholic fatty liver disease (ALD) patients and viral hepatitis patients (TA vs T OR = 0.766, 95% CI = 0.682–0.860, P = 0.000; TATA + TAT vs TT OR = 0.755, 95% CI = 0.645–0.885, P = 0.001) or healthy controls(TA vs T OR = 0.649, 95% CI = 0.431–0.977, P = 0.038). Here, HSD17B13 is linked to animal viral hepatitis.