Patent ID: 8034588

Claim:
A method for detecting whether bacterial species Streptococcus agalactiae is present in a test sample containing nucleic acids which comprises the following steps: a) contacting said sample with an amplification primer pair, said amplification primer pair consisting of a first primer and a second primer, wherein each of said first primer and said second primer of the pair is at least 18 nucleotides in length, wherein the first primer of the amplification primer pair hybridizes under conditions of 50 mM KCl, 10 mM Tris-HCl (pH 9.0), 2.5 mM MgCl 2 , at 55° C. to nucleic acids containing at least 18 consecutive nucleotides of SEQ ID NO:9 or the full complement thereof, and wherein the second primer of the amplification primer pair hybridizes under conditions of 50 mM KCl, 10 mM Tris-HCl (pH 9.0), 2.5 mM MgCl 2 , at 55° C. to nucleic acids containing at least 18 consecutive nucleotides of or SEQ ID NO:10 or the full complements thereof; b) performing an amplification reaction in the presence of said sample and said amplification primer pair at a condition such that the nucleic acid sequence between SEQ ID NO:9 and SEQ ID NO:10 in the genome of strains of Streptococcus agalactiae ( S. agalactiae ) is specifically and ubiquitously amplified and an amplicon comprising the nucleic acid sequence between SEQ ID NO:9 and SEQ ID NO:10 in the genome of strains of S. agalactiae is generated; and c) testing for the presence and/or amount of said amplicon, wherein the presence of said amplicon is indicative of the presence S. agalactiae in said test sample, and wherein the absence of said amplicon is indicative of the absence of S. agalacitae in said test sample.