Abstract
BACKGROUND: Canine meat (CM) is one of the non-halal meats prohibited for consumption by the Muslim community. Due to its low prices compared with beef, CM is typically used as meat adulterants in halal food-based products such as Satay and meatballs to get economic profits. AIM: The objective of this study was to design a novel species-specific primer in combination with real-time polymerase chain reaction for analysis of Canine's DNA for halal authentication analysis. METHODS: A Primer targeting the D-loop region of mitochondrial DNA was designed and subjected to a validation procedure by assessing some performance characteristics including specificity, amplification efficiency (E), sensitivity, repeatability, and linearity describing the correlation between the concentration of Canine's DNA (x-axis) and quantification cycle (Cq) in y-axis. The designed primer was specific over other meat DNAs applying the annealing temperature (Tm) of 57.8°C. RESULTS: The Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) method produced an acceptable amplification efficiency (E) of 109.7% with the coefficient of determination (R (2)) for the correlation between Cq and log DNA concentration of 0.999. The sensitivity of the developed method provides a limit of detection (LoD) value of 31.25 pg/µl. The precision of the analytical method is acceptable with a relative standard deviation value of 2%. The method with the designed D-loop primer was successfully applied for the detection and quantification of Canine's DNA in food products. There are no amplification profiles for Canine DNA in marketed goat's satay products. CONCLUSION: RT-PCR combined with a novel primer targeting D-loop provides a specific and accurate analytical tool for the identification of CM for halal authentication studies.