Application of cytological research methods to solve the question of the organic origin of animal horns

Conducting forensic examinations is the leading evidentiary mechanism in the investigation and disclosure of poaching cases. During the investigation, animal derivatives (horns, hooves, and feathers) are found and seized from poachers in addition to clothing, crime instruments, and animal carcasses. Currently, the expensive horns of artiodactyls are of the greatest value for extraction, and their quality is largely determined by the correctness of processing from the remnants of blood, skin, and hair. Such processing precludes the use of biological methods of analysis to determine the organic origin of the seized derivatives, and genetic examination is complicated by the lack of proper laboratory equipment, appropriate reagents, and the high cost of analysis.

The expert of the forensic biological department of the State Medical Institution of the Penza region should have established the organic origin of animal horns, presumably saiga, based on the decision on the examination appointment. The study included14 pieces of animal horns seized from persons suspected of poaching.

Microparticles were obtained from the peripheral and central parts of the horns, from which pressed preparations were prepared, followed by their staining and microscopy during the study. Luminescent microscopy of preparations from solid plates of the central part of the horn stained with fluorochromes revealed osteocytes, which are cellular characteristics of bone tissue. Epithelial cells that form the basis of the horn cover were detected when azur-eosin stained small particles from the peripheral part of the horn.

The identification of these cell types provides sufficient grounds to conclude the organic origin of the horns presented for research.