isolation and identification of listeria monocytogenes in vaginal samples by pcr

objective: listeria monocytogenes is a facultative, gram-positive bacterium which is found in soil, water, decaying vegetables, raw milk, and contaminated dairies. listeria monocytogenes causes listeriosis. listeriosis is a zoonosis disease, which transfers from animals to humans by animal feces and contaminated dairies. listeriosis causes the flu like disease or self-limited enteritis, but it leads to serious disease in elderlies, new-borns, pregnant women and immunocompromised persons. if pregnant women are infected by listeria monocytogenes, the newborn probably will be miscarried, prematured or stillborn. for the importance of the bacteria on pregnant women’s and newborn’s health, there are so much concentration and studies on it. culturing of the bacteria is so difficult and time-consuming and it needs at least 5 days to confirm. our goal in this survey was to develop an pcr based molecular method for fast detection of the bacteria from the vaginal samples. materials and methods: in this survey 100 vaginal samples were examined. all of the samples were cultured and assayed with pcr method. results: among them, 7 samples for culture and 36 samples by pcr were positive for listeria monocytogenes. conclusion: in this study we showed that the pcr is a faster, more accurate and sensitive than culture method for the detection of listeria monocytogenes in vaginal samples.