By Mathur, Purva; Samantaray, Jyotish; Chauhan, Neeraj Kumar Background & objectives: Definitive diagnosis of kala-azar requires demonstration of parasites by diagnostic protocols based on invasive organ aspirations.

Facts It is well known that prokaryotic cells outnumber the eukaryotic cells on Earth by several order of magnitudes, e.g. each of us contains 10 to 100 times (10(14-15)) more bacterial than own cells (10(13)).

Summary In this review an overview of various molecular techniques and their application for the detection and identification of bifidobacteria and lactobacilli in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is presented.