Cats Could Lend a Paw With Solving Puzzling Crimes

Although DNA analysis has been used for a long time now, Touch or Trace DNA is a relatively new type of examination relying often on a tiny sample - as few as 10 skin cells left on an object. Interestingly, calling it Touch DNA is actually a misnomer, as the material could be transferred without the item being touched directly.

A cat's fur can retain enough DNA to allow the furry felines to provide much-needed evidence for solving a crime, a study revealed.

So-called touch DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid - the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms) can be used by investigators of a crime either to rule out certain people as suspects or direct them towards unexpected likely perpetrators. Also called Trace DNA, it is obtained from skin cells and other biological material which have been transferred from a donor to an object or person during physical contact.

"Collection of human DNA needs to become very important in crime scene investigations, but there is a lack of data on companion animals such as cats and dogs in their relationship to human DNA transfer. These companion animals can be highly relevant in assessing the presence and activities of the inhabitants of the household, or any recent visitors to the scene," forensic scientist Heidi Monkman of Flinders University in Australia, was cited by media as saying.

Monkman, together with Dr Mariya Goray, from the College of Science and Engineering at Flinders, collected human DNA from 20 pet cats from a number of households. The study, carried out in collaboration with the Victoria Police Forensic Services Department, found detectable levels of DNA in 80 percent of the samples. According to the team, in 70 percent of the cats tested, so-called “interpretable profiles” were discovered that could be linked to a “person of interest” in a crime.

It is hoped that further research on the transfer of human DNA to animals, such as the collaborative work on cats and dogs at present underway at the Flinders University forensic laboratory, could offer new insights into interpreting forensic DNA results obtained from a crime scene that includes pets.