The invention discloses an oil-in-water type vaccine adjuvant as well as a preparation method and application thereof. The oil-in-water type nano-emulsion vaccine adjuvant comprises the following components in percentage by mass: 0.1-10 percent of oil phase, 0.1-10 percent of emulsifier, 0.1-3 percent of stabilizer, 0.1-3 percent of complexing agent and 0.01-10 percent of immunopotentiator. The preparation method comprises the following steps: (1) uniformly dispersing the immunopotentiator, the stabilizer and the complexing agent in water, thereby obtaining an aqueous phase; (2) mixing an oil phase and an emulsifier, thereby obtaining an oil phase; (3) slowly adding the oil phase into the aqueous phase, and continuously stirring, thereby forming a stable emulsion; (4) regulating the pH value of the emulsion, and fixing the volume to obtain a primary emulsion; and (5) performing high-speed shearing and high-pressure homogenizing on the primary emulsion. The vaccine adjuvant provided by the invention is simple in preparation, convenient to use and small in side reactions, is used for diluting vaccines, particularly swine fever live vaccines and is high in stability and good in immune effect.