A study on hair analysis of different Canidae breeds

Abstract

Dogs being most commonly present around humans means that their hair has become an important aspect among trace evidence that can be used as associative evidence in the court of law. They can serve as corroborating evidence as well as help in forensic investigations and trials. The morphological and morpho-metrical differences among hair are useful in differentiating dog breeds. This paper attempts to study the features that can aid in individualization as well as the identification of different dog breeds and help in future explorations. Micro-metric measurements and structure of shaft, medulla, and cuticle of hair may vary among different breeds of dogs (Canis familiaris). Hair samples were randomly collected from 42 dogs of different breeds. Examination of cuticle pattern was done by preparing hair casts and indices were calculated using micro-metric standards. Morphological characteristics were examined under stereomicroscope and light microscope for evaluating shaft diameter, medulla diameter, cuticle scale length, medulla patterns, cuticle patterns, and margins. The results of this study indicate that microscopic features can be used to distinguish different breeds of dogs whereas micro-metric values do not show remarkable distinctions. A rare condition - ‘split end’ was seen in Dachshund dog breed. Therefore, we can conclude that there are differences among dog hair if microscopic features can be observed and indices could be used for the forensic identification process, and these findings may contribute to discriminating among dog breeds based on preliminary hair examination.

Keywords

• Dog hair
• Medulla
• Cuticle
• Medullary index
• Cuticular index