Illegal hunting cases detected with molecular forensics in Brazil.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Illegal hunting is one of the major threats to vertebrate populations in tropical regions. This unsustainable practice has serious consequences not only for the target populations, but also for the dynamics and structure of tropical ecosystems. Generally, in cases of suspected illegal hunting, the only evidence available is pieces of meat, skin or bone. In these cases, species identification can only be reliably determined using molecular technologies. Here, we reported an investigative study of three cases of suspected wildlife poaching in which molecular biology techniques were employed to identify the hunted species from remains of meat.

Findings

By applying cytochrome b (cyt-b) and cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) molecular markers, the suspected illegal poa

SUBMITTER: Sanches A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3488531 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature