The Open Forensic Science Journal

2014, 7 : 6-13
Published online 2014 October 17. DOI: 10.2174/1874402801407010006
Publisher ID: TOFORSJ-7-6

Forensic Wildlife Parts and their Product Identification and Individualization Using DNA Barcoding

Raju Panday , Dinesh K. Jha , Nirajan Thapa , Basant R. Pokharel and Nanda K. Aryal
National Forensic Science Laboratory (NFSL), Khumaltar, Lalitpur, Nepal.

ABSTRACT

Despite very strict wildlife protection acts in several countries and trading laws such as CITES, illegal trading and poaching of wildlife is still active mostly because of the use of their parts in Chinese medicinal products and ornaments. For successfully identifying wildlife and their parts, mitochondrial DNA sequencing is being used now-a-days. DNA bar coding using fragments of cytochrome b and cytochrome oxidase I genes are frequently utilized for mammalian species identification. This mini review describes some of the mtDNA sequences and STR markers used for mammalian species identification in the field of forensic wildlife along with the problems associated and their possible solutions.

Keywords:

Cytochrome b, cytochrome oxidase, DNA bar coding, wildlife forensics.