Design of primers Species-specific real-time PCR primers
were designed using Vector NTI software (Invitrogen,
Carlsbad, CA, USA) based on sequences of mitochondrial
DNA available in the GenBank database for various
species. Accession numbers for the gene sequences and
primer sequence information are listed in Table 1. The
primers included 3 sequences from the cytochrome b
(cytb) gene for cattle, pig, and chicken, 2 sequences from
the 12S rRNA gene for deer and goat, and 2 sequences
from the 16S rRNA gene for horse and donkey.