The objective of this project was to construct a specific and sensitive method using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for identifying Cryptosporidium parvum. The vegetables were spiked with 5 µl to 1000 µl of C. parvum. The dislodging of C. parvum oocysts from vegetables was achieved using the BAM method. The pelleted material or the potential C. parvum oocysts was incubated with a digestion buffer (50mM Tris-HCL, pH 8.0, 0.25 M EDTA), Proteinase K, and 10% Sodium Dodecyl sulfate (SDS). The DNA extraction of C. parvum oocysts was achieved by a series of solvent extraction methods first using phenol, then phenol:chloroform/isoamyl alcohol (1:1), and finally with chloroform:isoamyl alcohol (24:1). The cholorform:isamyl alcohol (24:1) step is repeated three times. I found by using similar concentrations of the above solvents yields the best optimal results. Oligonucleotide primers specific for C. parvum that have been previously developed was used to amplify a 452-base pair target sequence. Only DNA extracted from C. parvum yielded the appropiate 452-base pair sequence. Thus, I present an assay that is relatively simple, sensitive and specific and results obtainable overnight.