The Canine DNA Recovery Project: Current Findings and Next Steps

Dawnay, L, Riley, P, Lewis, M, McColl, S and Dawnay, N (2025) The Canine DNA Recovery Project: Current Findings and Next Steps. In: 30th Congress of the International Society for Forensic Genetics, Santiago de Compostela, 9-13 September 2024: proceedings . pp. 209-215. (30th Congress of the International Society for Forensic Genetics, 9th Sep - 13th Sep 2024, Santiago de Compostela, Spain).

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Abstract

The Canine DNA Recovery Project (CDnaRP) is a collaborative forensic project that aims to de velop best practice methods for the collection and analysis of dog DNA recovered from attacked livestock and wildlife. The project works closely with police and forensic practitioners to optimise and standardise methods and also works with special interest groups including vets, rural insu rers, farmers, and charities to ensure stakeholder awareness of the research and how it relates to livestock and wildlife offences involving canines. Our research to date has developed and valida ted a robust qPCR assay for canine DNA quantification. The method acts as an important quality control step in the forensic DNA analysis pipeline and has allowed us to assess the effectiveness of different DNA recovery techniques such as swabbing, taping, and cutting. Other areas of our research have revealed the extent to which PCR inhibitors and livestock DNA prevent PCR amplification and canine DNA profile interpretation and has identified mitigation steps leading to improved data quality. To build on these findings, our project has developed an Early Evidence Kit (EEK) for police and rural stakeholder groups to use in the event of a livestock attack. The distribution of these kits will allow a greater number of samples to be collected for the research and will begin to understand whether non-enforcement groups such as farmers themselves can collect admissible evidence in the future. Our presentation looks at the validation of this kit and considers their application in the UK Criminal Justice System.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA1001 Forensic Medicine. Medical jurisprudence. Legal medicine
Divisions:	Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences
Publisher:	Universidade de Santiago de Compostela
Date of acceptance:	10 March 2025
Date of first compliant Open Access:	15 May 2025
Date Deposited:	15 May 2025 12:15
Last Modified:	15 May 2025 12:19
DOI or ID number:	10.15304/cc.2025.1869
Editors:	Butler, J
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26356

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