The four-legged world: Crime scene investigation!

Several forensic scientists were testing on hairs and analysing the DNA of a dog to match the DNA profile of a suspect’s dog at the crime scene. Since dogs are man’s best friend, they may tag along to a crime scene with a suspect. DNA can be transferred from different parts (hair, saliva, etc) of an animal to the suspect or victim, or even to the crime scene.

It’s not only humans’ DNA! It’s the DNA of canines too, and yes, we can do the same kind of forensic testing as we do to human to provide evidence for a crime scene. The probability of a randomly chosen animal having an identical DNA profile as the one tested is less than one in a million and so, the result of the DNA analysis is a vital evidence for a crime scene. Moreover, it appears to be easier to test on animal samples than that of humans. Most animals often lick their fur to groom themselves, therefore, saliva can sometimes be found on the fur, and a better DNA source is obtained too! This definitely can secure the link of a suspect to a crime scene or a victim.

The forensic division of the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory of the University of California, Davis is known to be the world’s largest domestic animal testing site which handles many hundreds of cases from all over the world per year. Also, the results of the laboratory tests cause the persecution of many criminals. In addition, to prevent various samples from being highly contaminated, the laboratory developed reagents specific to some animals.


Dogs are becoming the best friends of forensic scientists too, not just best friends of man!

An animal DNA profile

Primary source:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,343333,00.html

Secondary source:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1151809-1,00.html

http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/forensics/index.php

Jennifer Xu (41600739)