Information and background of RhODIS™ – the Rhinoceros DNA Index
System for African white and black rhinoceros. C. Harper.
The Veterinary Genetics Laboratory (VGL) at the
Faculty of Veterinary Science of the University of
Pretoria at Onderstepoort has been providing a
DNA profiling and parentage testing service to the
horse, cattle and dog industries since 2000. The
VGL performs all micro-chipping and DNA testing of
Thoroughbred horses for the National Horseracing
Authority of South Africa and handles over 12 000
samples per year of various species. The VGL is
self-funded and all staff salaries, equipment and
overheads are covered by service income.
All additional income or profit is channelled into
genetic based research projects and worthwhile
programs. In 2006 the VGL identified a need to
develop expertise in animal forensic testing and
approached the Trace Wildlife Forensic Network
in the UK. A Wildlife DNA Forensic course was
held collaboratively with Trace in 2007 and during
this course a project was launched collaboratively
between the members of Trace, the VGL representing
the University of Pretoria and the University of Wales,
Bangor to develop a system to individually identify
rhinoceros from horn samples. The horn and blood
samples from individual white rhinoceros were
supplied by SANParks as part of a registered SANParks
project.
The project was completed successfully and the data
on the white rhinoceros was published as part of a
PhD thesis of a student from the University of Wales,
Bangor in 2009. A poster reporting the successful
outcome of the project was presented as a report to
SANParks at the Savanna Science Network Meeting in
Skukuza in March 2010, by the VGL, on behalf of the
collaborators and PhD student. A paper that describes
the development of the sex test using the zinc finger
locus was published jointly by the collaborators on the
original project in 2010.
The horn DNA profiling method has subsequently
been validated and optimized. The number of loci
used in the original test has almost doubled and the
horn DNA extraction method has been re-assessed
and now uses the latest technology available for
human forensic DNA extraction. This method is now
used routinely in the VGL to individually identify
rhinoceros horns from stockpiles, for security
purposes and to link recovered horns to individual
poaching cases, thereby linking a horn trafficker to
a poaching incident or a poacher caught with horns
in his possession with the carcass of an individual
rhinoceros.
The success of this method has led to the conviction
and one year sentencing of Donald Allison, an antique
dealer from the UK that attempted to smuggle two
rhinoceros horns from a deceased zoo rhinoceros
to China. DNA extraction was performed in the UK
by Trace and the profile testing was done by the
VGL in this case. It has also led to the conviction and
subsequent sentencing to 10 years imprisonment
of Xuang Hoang, a Vietnamese man that tried to
smuggle rhinoceros horns that included horns from a
poached rhinoceros. The horns were linked through
DNA testing by the VGL. Two Mozambican citizens
were also sentenced to a total of 16 years in prison
after being apprehended in the Kruger National Park
with rhinoceros horns in their possession. The horns
were linked with DNA to a carcass found poached in
the park previously.
The value of this method is increasing with increasing
numbers of rhinoceros DNA profiles being added
to the database weekly. Each poaching incident
currently being investigated has as part of its standard
operating procedure, the collection of samples for
DNA testing. This provides the opportunity to link
not only the horns, if recovered within the country
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