DNA used to pinpoint sources of illegal ivory trade

DNA used to pinpoint sources of illegal ivory trade    An international team of scientists has developed a method using DNA to pinpoint the geographic origin of illegal ivory shipments.
   The illegal killing of African elephants for their tusks remains widespread despite a 1989 international agreement banning the ivory trade. The African elephant population dropped 60 percent, from 1.3 million to about 500,000 between 1979 and 1987.
   Biologist Samuel Wasser of the University of Washington and his team extracted DNA from elephant droppings and skin biopsy samples collected from numerous locations in 16 African countries. They used the information to build a DNA-based reference map to assign tusk origin.
   “The method allows a DNA sample to be assigned to a fairly specific location, with a relatively high confidence that the assignment is correct,” the university said in a statement.
   The university also said the DNA-based targeting could “prove a potent tool in slowing elephant poaching and the illegal ivory trade by identifying hot spots where enforcement should be increased.”
   Customs and other regulatory agencies throughout the world continue to nab illegal ivory shipments. In June 2002, Singaporean authorities seized a shipment of about 6.5 metric tons of ivory bound for the Far East. The shipment included 532 whole tusks, many more than 6 feet long, and 41,000 small carved ivory cylinders. The cylinders alone were valued at more than $6 million, according to authorities.
   A report of the research team’s work will be presented at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting in Bangkok Oct. 2. The results were also published in the Sept. 27 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.