493ISOLATION AND ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE OF CAMPYLOBACTER JEJUNI FROM WASTEWATER AND ITS SPECIFIC IDENTIFICATION USING PCR ASSAY BASED ON 2 GENESThe genus Campylobacter is of great importance to public health because it includes several species that may cause diarrhoea. The efficacy of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based on hipo and mapA gene of Campylobacter jejuni was tested for detection of C. jejuni in wastewater samples. Simultaneously, all the samples were subjected to the cultural isolation of organism and biochemical characterization .From 80 sample of wastewater it was found that 7 samples was positive for the present of C. jejuni which identified by cultural and biochemical tests . hipO primer (735bp) produced appropriate and successful results which yielded amplified products with all selected isolates. It was found that species-specific polymerase chain reaction assay with specificity 100%. The positive samples resulted in the amplification of a DNA fragment of mapA gene with size ~589 bp in PCR assay whereas the absence of such amplicon in DNA extracted from E. coli, Salmonella and Staphylococcus confirmed the specificity of the mapA primers. The results depicted the superior efficacy of PCR for rapid screening of samples owing to its high sensitivity and specificity. The results showed that all isolates were susceptible to gentamicin and amoxicillin- clavulanic acid except for one isolate. The highest resistance rate was found to ciprofloxacin , nalidixic acid and ampicillinwathiqaldraghi@gmail.comResearch572014Campylobacter jejuni,Wastewater,PCRWathiq Abbas AldraghiGenetic Engineering and Biotechnology Institute for Postgraduate Studies, Baghdad, Iraq