A combined method for species identification in furs to comply with EU Reg 1523/2007

What is it about?

In Western countries, public opinion is getting more and more sensitive to animal welfare and protection. Particularly, dogs and cats are considered beloved family pets. On the contrary, in several Asian countries the breeding of dogs and cats is widely accepted and practised for the production of furs. Currently, China is the largest producer and exporter to European countries of furs and fur items, including soft-toys or accessories, including the ones made from dog and cat furs. Therefore, consumers in the EU demand to be assured about the production of furs, in order to avoid the risk of inadvertently buying products made with fur from these animals. European Union officially banned the import and export from all Member States of dog and cat furs, and all products containing fur from these species, with the Regulation 1523/2007, applying since 31st December 2008. The need of an agreed analytical method to discriminate dog and cat furs from allowed fur-bearing species would obviously be an essential step to comply with the ban. In this paper, we propose a combined morphological and molecular method for species identification in furs, to discriminate dog and cat furs from allowed fur-bearing species, in order to comply with the ban. Morphological screening can be used for fast and inexpensive exclusion of synthetic furs or furs not belonging to canid or felid species. In the second step, hairs not excluded as belongind to canid or felid species, are submitted to DNA analysis. The rational for this proposal is that while DNA analysis is highly effective in fur identification at the species level, this kind of testing is also expensive and labor-intensive, so it would not be reasonable to apply it arbitrarily to all the questioned fur samples. Furthermore, in degraded samples where no DNA can be obtained, it is still possible to exclude canid or felid species with a previous cheaper morphological screening. Morphological preselection of animal hairs could therefore allow significant cost and time savings. Effectiveness of the two combined analytical methods proved to be overall higher compared to the single assays.

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Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

Why is it important?

EU Regulation 1523/2007 banned the use and trade of dog and cat furs, suggesting that one or more analytical methods could be used to identify dog and cat furs, amongst microscopy (morphological analysis of animal hairs), molecular testing (PCR-based DNA analysis) and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry (quantitative analysis of hair keratin peptides). EU Member States could adopt one or more techniques, yet information on the methods actually applied or on their effectiveness is scarce. The low number of analyses on imported furs declared in a Report from the EU Commission in 2013 contrasts with the large numbers of illegal furs denounced by the press or animal welfare associations relating to Chinese export of fur products. The availability of agreed analytical methods to discriminate dog and cat furs from allowed fur-bearing species is an essential step to comply with the ban. This is not an easy task, since some of the licit animals used by the fur industry are phenotypically similar and/or phylogenetically closely related to the dog, like other species belonging to canid or felid families. Furthermore, furs and pelts (especially when used in small items such as coat collars, scarves, key-rings or children’s toys) may have been treated with aggressive chemicals, dyed, trimmed or otherwise altered, thus making the identification of species tough, whatever the method used. Therefore, in order to comply with the EU Regulation, we explored a combined morphological and molecular approach for species identification in furs. Effectiveness of the two combined analytical methods proved to be overall higher compared to the single assays.