The Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) has developed a novel technique in identifying the animal species, which will enable wildlife crime detection. It just needs a drop of blood, tiny piece of meat, a bunch of hair or any other mutilated biological sample confiscated by investigating officers to establish whether it belongs to human or animal, and if animal, to which species. The technique, claimed to be the first of its kind in the world, is universal in application and does not need any prior information about the origin of the biological sample. It just requires minute amounts of the sample and the results obtained are quick and authentic, according to Dr Lalji Singh, Director of CCMB.

Hoteliers can no more cheat customers by mixing beef or cheap meat with mutton nor can wildlife poachers go unpunished for want of evidence. At present animal samples are identified based on their morphological features or biochemical markers and these approaches are rarely effective in establishing the exact identity of mutilated biological samples and skinned carcasses.

Dr Lalji Singh said, “We are able to isolate the unique signature in the DNA fragment of the animal, and quickly match it with the rapidly growing database of signatures from the animal world that we possess today, to come to a solid conclusion.”

CCMB already has a database of signatures of about 2,000 known animal species.“ We will build a database of 50,000 signatures of animals in the coming years, so that the tool becomes very useful in a range of application,” Dr Singh said.

The new technique is developed by Dr Lalji Singh and Dr S K Verma. They strip-teased a fragment of the gene called “Cytochrome-b” present in mitochondria of the cell to find out a 'naked truth' that Cytochrome-b contained the genetic signatures specific to each animal species. Nature has genetic truckloads of such specific signatures in the mitochondria for each species and then 'xeroxes' them to make multiple copies. This signature is then matched with a database to establish the identity of the animal. Dr Lalji Singh said, “ It was so simple that when we sent the paper for publication, the reviewers just could not believe it.”

The test was put to use in the Chennai incident when a wild animal used to enter a zoo and create havoc. CCMB scientists isolated the DNA from the faecal samples and ran the probe to pinpoint that it was a leopard. Subsequently, a trap suitable for a leopard was set up and the animal caught.

With 25 cases solved in the country using the new method, CCMB has started getting enquiries from abroad, especially from European countries, on wildlife. CCMB has filed for a patent in the US as well as with the PCT (Paris Convention Treaty). It has also entered into collaboration with Ingenovis, a bioinformatics division of I-Labs, a city-based company for automation and enhancement of the database through a software called Wildlife Tracing Net for Species Signature (WITNESS) developed by it.