Quality evaluation of BCG vaccine by conventional and molecular methods

BCG vaccine is an attenuated derivative of Mycobacterium bovis which is widely used as a vaccine against tuberculosis and conventional as well as molecular methods have been described as identification test for BCG vaccine. In present study, we compared the results obtained with Ziehl Neelsen staining and multiplex PCR (mPCR) methods for identification of different batches of BCG vaccine. We found that all the BCG vaccine batches tested showed specific amplified DNA band indicating that mPCR method may be used as a rapid and specific alternative method for the identification of BCG vaccine.