Abstract
Wildlife crime continues unabated contributing to the extinction or near extinction of many plant and animal species. Species identification is a key tool in the enforcement of national legislation. If no morphology exists, comparison of DNA sequences generated from a mitochondrial gene are compared to those on a reference database, commonly GenBank. Sequences up-loaded to GenBank are unregulated and can lead to uncertainty with the adequacy of this DNA sequence repository for identification in a forensic context. We propose the establishment of ForCyt as a fully-regulated database of species that are commonly encountered in forensic investigations. The establishment of ForCyt will allow confidence in future species identification; something that is an absolute requirement to ensure high quality forensic science.
Original language | English |
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Pages | e466-e468 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Dec 2017 |
Event | 27th International Society for Forensic Genetics - Seoul, Korea, Republic of Duration: 28 Aug 2017 → 1 Sept 2017 |
Conference
Conference | 27th International Society for Forensic Genetics |
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Country/Territory | Korea, Republic of |
City | Seoul |
Period | 28/08/17 → 1/09/17 |
Keywords
- Illegal wildlife trade
- Mitochondrial DNA
- Quality control
- Species identification
- Standardised reference database
- Wildlife crime
- Wildlife forensics