For the first time, here we described a multiplex polymerase chain reaction assay for the accurate identification of five
meat species forbidden in Islamic foods in a single assay platform. Five pairs of species-specific primers
were designed targeting mitochondrial ND5, ATPase 6, and cytochrome b genes to amplify 172, 163, 141,
129 and 108 bp DNA fragments from cat, dog, pig, monkey and rat meats, respectively.