In this study, a polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment lengthpolymorphism analysis (PCR-RFLP)-based method was applied to identify the meat origin of different animal species by using a universal primer cytochrome b (cyt b1 and cyt b2). It is common in to adulterate buffalo’s meat for sale to consumers. Identification of the species of origin for meat and products is important and useful in practice to protect human from adulteration, because it allows the detection offraud in the form of the substitution of a less costly type of meat for one of a higher quality. Meat samples were collected from 4 farm animals' species (cattle, buffalo, goat and sheep) to differentiate each species according to its mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). This method was based on mtDNA conserved region sequence variations. The DNA sequence of mitochondrial cytochrome b gene is 359-bp was obtained from gene-bank data base (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). Then the PCR product was digested, using restriction endonuclease enzymes and yield species-specific restriction profile. This technique is more sensitive and also specific for meat species identification and differentiation. Therefore, this assay may be suitable test and more rapid than conventional methods. The economic impact of this situation leads to many investigations of potential fraud meat and meat products. The mitochondrialencoded cytb gene was used as a molecular marker for the discrimination of meat and meat products species,
KEY WORDS: Meat, Meat products, PCR, RFLP analysis, mitDNA, Animal species.