APPLICATION OF CYTOLOGICAL RESEARCH METHODS TO SOLVE THE QUESTION OF THE ORGANIC ORIGIN OF ANIMAL HORNS: A CASE FROM EXPERT PRACTICE.

Abstract

Relevance. As the leading evidentiary mechanism in the investigation and disclosure of poaching cases is the conduct of forensic examinations. During the investigation, animal derivatives (horns, hooves, feathers) may be found and seized from poachers in addition to clothing, crime instruments and animal carcasses. Currently, it is the expensive horns of artiodactyls that are of the greatest value for extraction, and their quality is largely determined by the correctness of processing from the remnants of blood and skin and hair. Such processing does not allow the use of biological methods of analysis to establish the organic origin of the seized derivatives, and the conduct of genetic examination is complicated by the lack of proper equipment of laboratories with special equipment, appropriate reagents and the high cost of analysis. The purpose of the study is to use methods of forensic cytological examination, and in particular to establish the presence of cells and their tissue origin, to solve the question of the organic origin of the horns submitted for examination. Materials and methods. During the study, microparticles were obtained from the peripheral and central parts of the horns, from which pressed preparations were prepared, followed by their staining and microscopy. Results. Luminescent microscopy of preparations from solid plates of the central part of the horn stained with fluorochromes revealed osteocytes - cells characteristic of bone tissue. When azur eosin stained small particles from the peripheral part of the horn, epithelial cells that form the basis of the horn cover were detected. Conclusion. The identification of these cell types provides sufficient grounds for forming a conclusion about the organic origin of the horns presented for research.