Received: 10 th August-2012 Revised: 14 th August-2012 Accepted: 17 th August-2012 Research article MOLECULAR IDENTIFICATION OF BACTERIA ISOLATED FROM MEAT SAMPLE Farzad Sayyadifar 1 ., Morteza Haghi 2 ., T.Mohammad Munawar 3 ., D.Jayasimha Rayalu 4* 1 International University of Tabriz, Pardis Aras. Iran 2 Young Researchers club-Azad Islamic university of Urmia. Iran. 3 Department of Biotechnology, JNTUACEP, India. 4 Department of Biotechnology, DR.Rayalu’s Biotech PVT LTD, Himayat nagar, Hyderabad. *Corresponding Author: e-mail: jaimscbiotech2007@gmail.com ABSTRACT: Contamination of food with bacteria moulds, yeasts, viruses, protozoa or parasites could occur within food premises and result in unfit or unsafe food. Microbial contamination is frequently the result of ignorance, carelessness or negligence by the food operator, or due to lack of space or inappropriate design of food areas. In this work we have identified meat contaminating bacteria through molecular techniques. The bacterium identified through morphological and biochemical tests was sporosarcina halofila. This was confirmed after amplification of genomic DNA with suitable primers. Plasmid was isolated and it was identified to be 11kb. PCR amplified product was 100bp and primers were designed accordingly to the suitable organism. Key words: DNA isolation, Food Contaminants, PCR, Sporosarcina halofila INTRODUCTION Meat is an important edible postmortem component originating from the live animals that are used as food by human. Food-borne pathogens are the leading cause of illness and death in developing countries costing billions of dollars in medical care and social costs (Fratamico et al., 2005). Changes in eating habits, mass catering complex and lengthy food supply procedures with increased international movement and poor hygiene practices are major contributing factors (Hedberg et al., 1992). Contaminated raw meat is one of the main sources of food-borne illness (Bhandare et al., 2007; Podpecan et al., 2007). Meat is the main edible part of domestic mammals; however, recent definition includes species, as well as fish, shellfish, poultry and exotic species such as frogs and allegation (Nakai and Moddler, 2000). Similarly, meat refers to animal tissue used as food, mostly skeletal muscles and associated fat but it may also refer to organs including lungs, livers, skin, brains, bone marrow, kidney and a variety of other internal organs as well as blood (Hammer, 1987). Recent increase in the consumption of meat and its products arises from reasons including high protein contents, vitamins, minerals, lipids and savory sensation. A number of studies have reported outbreak of infections due to consumption of contaminated food and poor hygiene and in most of the cases, data are loosely based on laboratory isolates which do not reflect the actual ratio of food-borne infections. However, a few community-based reports provide evidence of several outbreak caused by Salmonella, Shigella, E. coli and Listeria spps in different parts of the world (Zweifer et al.,2008). Bacterial contamination of meat products is an unavoidable consequence of meat processing (Labadie, 1999). Contaminants originate from a variety of processing and animal sources (Boerema et al., 2003; Gill and Landers, 2004; Gill and McGinnis, 2000). Hurdle technologies are commonly used to restrict the subsequent growth of such contaminants. For example, vacuum packaging in combination with chilling produces an environment where only those organisms able to grow at low temperatures in the absence of oxygen can proliferate. Such psychrotrophic organisms include species capable of causing disease and/or early meat spoilage, e.g., Listeria monocytogenes, Brochothrix thermosphacta and Clostridium estertheticum (Broda et al., 2003; Gardner, 1981; Gill and Reichel, 1989; Sim et al., 2002). International Journal of Applied Biology and Pharmaceutical Technology Page: 34 Available online at www.ijabpt.com