Análise forense como ferramenta molecular para identificação de animais silvestres: uma revisão integrativa Goiânia

Abstract

The illegal trade in animals is the third most lucrative illicit activity in the world, second only to drug trafficking and arms trafficking. To identify these commercialized animals, molecular markers can be used for forensic analysis. These markers play a key role in species identification, as morphological markers are often not visible for identification. Using the integrative review, it is possible to obtain bibliographic information on scientific production on a given topic. Therefore, the objective of this study was to carry out an integrative analysis of studies related to the use of molecular genetic analysis in cases of illegal animal trade. The review was carried out using five articles selected from the Scopus database. To search for articles, the terms “forensic identification” AND animal AND “illegal trade” were used, and data were collected, such as: year; kind of work; authors; scientific magazines; molecular markers; species studied; purpose and outcome of work. The analyzes of the results were described in tables. The years of selected publications ranged from 2008 to 2012 published in two scientific journals: Forensic Science International Genetics and Journal of Forensic Sciences. Australia (n = 3) was the country that obtained the highest number of publications and the number of citations of the selected articles ranged from 20 to 45. The objective of most studies was to identify the species through molecular techniques and found that the techniques Molecular tests managed to fulfill the role of identifying species through traces. The molecular markers used in the articles were SNPs, mitochondrial DNA, Mini-barcoding and PCR-RFLP. It is noticed that molecular markers are the most recommended and effective to identify traces of species. The information generated by forensic molecular markers is necessary to solve legal and police problems associated with crimes against fauna, aiming at the identification and recovery of species.