IDENTIFICATION OF WILD AND DOMESTIC ANIMAL THROUGH MORPHOLOGICAL INDEX OF GUARD HAIR
SANGEETA PATLE
Department of Biological Sciences, Rani Durgavati University, Jabalpur, MP, India.
TILAK RAM
Department of Biological Sciences, Rani Durgavati University, Jabalpur, MP, India.
K. P. SINGH
School of Wildlife Forensic and Health, Nanji Deshmukh Veterinary Science University, Jabalpur, MP, India.
DIVYA BAGCHI *
Department of Biological Sciences, Rani Durgavati University, Jabalpur, MP, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The present study was conducted to find out the microscopic characteristics of guard hair of wild and domestic animals with their keratin protein pattern for species identification. Hairs have ability to remain unchanged chemically and histological for years thus it may be utilize for forensic analysis. For this study the guard hair sample of Cow (Bos-taurus), Nilgai (Boselaphus-tragocamelus), Black Buck (Antelope-cervicapra) were taken from repository Museum of School of Wildlife Forensic and Health, NDVSU, Jabalpur, (MP). The hair samples were processed and categorically medullary and cuticular pattern were observed by using binocular compound microscope under 40-100 X magnifications. The specific variations were observed in this study among hair color, texture, scale margin, scale distance, scale pattern, variations in medullary pattern and cross sections of different species thus formulated hair index. Subsequently, on the basis of hair index and keratin protein bands between 40-60 kDa by SDS-PAGE, the species identification was performed. The study envisaged that both the microscopic and SDS- PAGE analyses of guard hairs would be useful for recognition of an individual species particularly for forensic uses subjected to collection of evidences.
Keywords: Medullary pattern, cuticular characters, keratin, SDS-PAGE