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Kotze, A.; Ehlers, K.; Cilliers, D.C.; Grobler, J.P.
The power of resolution of microsatellite markers and assignment tests to determine the geographic origin of cheetah (_Acinonyx jubatus_) in Southern Africa
2008  Mammalian Biology (73): 457-562

Formerly found in 44 countries in Africa and Asia, cheetahs are currently confined to fragmented populations in 29 African countries, and remnant populations in Iran and Pakistan (Marker 2002). In southern Africa, cheetahs are at present found in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Trade in cheetah products and live export of cheetah from Namibia and Botswana is stringently controlled (CITES 1992). As a result, conservation authorities are constantly aware of potential illegal trade in cheetah over the Namibian and Botswana borders with South Africa. Where foul-play is involved, identification of source populations of confiscated animals will require implementation of identification techniques based on multilocus genotypes. Manel et al. (2002) demonstrated that genetic methods have high power of resolution to determine the geographic origin of population samples for sufficiently differentiated populations. Forensic science services for domesticated animals are well established in South Africa and have in recent years expanded to include game species, marine fish stock identification and ornamental fish (Grobler et al. 2005). In this paper, we describe the power of resolution of microsatellite markers and assignment tests to determine the geographic origin of cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) confiscated in South Africa on suspicion of illegal import. Cheetah was formerly thought to be genetically highly monomorphic (presumably following a historic bottleneck), based on allozyme data (O'Brien et al. 1983). Subsequent studies (Menotti-Raymond and O'Brien 1993, 1995) have revealed genetic heterogeneity for microsatellite markers. This has been attributed to accumulated variation since the hypothetical bottleneck, resultant from the high mutation rates of microsatellite markers (Hedrick 1996). The presence of a moderate level of genetic diversity, comparable to other felids for some markers (Menotti-Raymond and O'Brien 1993), suggests that marker-based forensic identification in cheetah is feasible.

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