title: Molecular insight into a wildlife crime: the case of a peafowl slaughter.
abstract: We report a recent case in which a wildlife warden had suspected that some people had killed and cooked a peacock. Cooked meat, intestine of bird and the wooden block used for chopping were seized from the site of crime and forwarded to our laboratory for DNA testing. Mitochondrial cytochrome b sequence analysis revealed that the cooked meat and remnants of the bird were of a chicken, but the DNA obtained from the wooden block was of an Indian Peafowl (Peacock) testifying that the wooden chopping block was used to chop the meat of an endangered bird, thus bringing to light a wildlife crime.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India.
authors.forename: Sandeep Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: Sunil Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Verma
authors.forename: Lalji
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Singh
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D003415:Crime; D003573:Cytochrome b Group / Q000235:genetics*; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting / Q000379:methods*; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000032:analysis*; D046094:Galliformes / Q000235:genetics*; D007194:India; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D003573:Cytochrome b Group; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial