Molecular approaches in species identification of Sarcocysts in Indian buffalo meat.

DNA was extracted from sarcocysts (visible on naked eye examination) collected from 168 buffaloes belonging to Mumbai (60), Hyderabad (54) and Kolkata (54) cities of India. They were subjected to PCR assay using 18S rRNA gene primer. All the PCR amplicons of about 900 bp were subjected to restriction enzyme digestion with four different restriction enzymes (BslI, DraI, FokI and RsaI). PCR amplicons showed two different patterns (Pattern A and Pattern B) on RFLP. Twenty one PCR products from Pattern A and one PCR product from Pattern B were subjected to DNA sequencing. S. fusiformis and S. taeniata were identified from Pattern A and S. buffalonis was identified from Pattern B on sequencing.