Objective To develop a polymerase chain reaction(PCR) assay for rapid,specific and sensitive detection of Shigella ipaH gene.Methods According to the sequences of the ipaH gene,primers were designed to amplify ipaH gene.The length of amplicon was 204 bp.To evaluate the specificity of the assay,3 strains of Shigella and 6 strains of non-Shigella were tested by PCR.One of Shigella flexneri was 10-fold serially diluted and amplified by PCR to verify the limit of detection.PCR results were judged by electrophoresis and DNA sequence analysis.Results For 3 strains of Shigella,the results of the PCR assay were observed.No amplified bands were observed in 6 strains of non-Shigella.The specificity of PCR assay was also confirmed by DNA sequence analysis.The detection limit of PCR assay was 10 CFU/ml of Shigella flexneri.Conclusions These results indicated that the PCR assay is a rapid,specific and sensitive detection method for Shigella ipaH gene.