Failure of DNA check orangutans a case of sabotage?

[Guest guest]

SAFARI WORLD / ORANG-UTAN PROBE

 

Lab glitch delays DNA test results

 

 

 

RANJANA WANGVIPULA

 

DNA testing on 50 orang-utans suspected of having been smuggled into the

country has run into an unexpected delay, as the lab doing the testing has

failed to identify their genetic code, a veterinarian said yesterday.

 

``The lab did a good job on the first sample but failed in the other 49. I

have no idea what happened and am quite upset at having to start things all

over again,'' said Theerapol Sirinarumitr, a vet at Kasetsart University.

 

He declined to name the lab but said it is state-owned.

 

Mr Theerapol has led a team of vets to test DNA samples taken from the 50

orang-utans at the request of forestry police, who suspect the Safari World

Zoo may have illegally imported the rare primates from Malaysia or

Indonesia.

 

The private zoo earlier claimed to have acquired about half of its

orang-utan population of more than 100 through donations, but insisted 43 of

them were born to their seven captive parents purchased before 1992, when

the Wildlife Protection Act came into effect.

 

The police demanded the primates be subject to DNA tests and started

collecting blood samples from them in late September. Mr Theerapol then

extracted their DNAs from the blood samples and employed a scientific method

called Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to increase the volume of each DNA,

so it could be detected and identified.

 

A problem occurred when all DNA samples were sent to the lab, which

allegedly failed to identify their genetic codes, according to Mr Theerapol,

who needed the results to compare whether the DNAs of the 43 orang-utans

matched those of the seven apes the zoo said were their parents.

 

He said the lab's excuse was that it had received an insufficient DNA

volume, making it unable to detect the substance. Some of his work that

required the lab's expertise had also faced a similar problem in recent

months, Mr Theerapol said.

 

His team had sent two new samples to another state-owned lab. If everything

went smoothly, he would send all samples to the new lab, which should give

him the test results in the next three weeks, the vet said.

 

``There's nothing to do but to wait for the results. We can't do it

ourselves,'' said Pol Lt-Col Chatchai Thamvichai, who heads a team of

forestry police handling the case. Wildlife Conservation Bureau director

Schwann Tunhikorn defended the laboratory, saying technical mistakes can

happen.

 

 

 

 

 

Edwin Wiek

- Wildlife Friends of Thailand

 

www.wfft.org

 

Thailand Representative - Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation

 

www.savetheorangutans.info