Rapid identification of goat (Capra hircus) and sheep (Ovis aries) species in raw meat using duplex PCR assay

Adulteration of high quality meat with their inferior/cheaper counterparts has become a common practice in the meat industry, which is not detectable by the naked eye or by eating. To circumvent this problem, molecular methods had been developed. The present study was carried out for detection of meat species with the use of cytochrome b gene variability by duplex PCR. Meat samples from goat, sheep and buffalo were utilized for molecular analysis. Genomic DNA was isolated from six samples of each species with some modifications. Mitochondrial cyotchrome b gene was amplified by conventional and duplex PCR using a common forward primer and species-specific reverse primer. PCR amplicons were resolved by agarose gel electrophoresis and for each species produce a characteristic band pattern in conventional and duplex PCR was obtained. The PCR products showed species-specific DNA fragments of 157 and 331 bps from goat and sheep respectively. The duplex PCR could detect upto 10 % of DNA of meat species. Thus, the duplex PCR was found to be a simple, reliable, sensitive and highly specific test for simultaneous detection of meat species.