New testing reveals origins of pangolin products illegally sold in China

They also identified Nigeria as the largest transit hub in Africa, where traffickers collect pangolin scales and ship them overseas, according to the African Pangolin Seizure Map.

The team has come up with a genetic test that could identify the precise geographic origin of confiscated pangolin scales, an innovation they say could shorten the lag time between intercepting wildlife products, tracing supply chains and law enforcement.

Beijing banned the hunting of pangolins in 2007 and banned the import of pangolins and their by-products 11 years later.

The Forestry Administration said in September that pangolins had been found in the wild in China’s Guangdong, Fujian, Hainan, Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces, but did not specify how many of the animals there were.

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In the new study, researchers say that as Asian pangolin populations decline, smugglers have turned to importing African pangolins to meet demand. The white-bellied pangolin lives in West and Central Africa, from Guinea to Zambia, making it the most trafficked mammal in the world.

Scientists analyzed more than 650 white-bellied pangolin scales seized by Hong Kong authorities. The samples were selected from a total of 38 tons (42 tons) of scales collected from at least 105,000 dead pangolins that arrived between 2012 and 2018.

Genetic analysis and data on seized pangolin products show the samples were harvested in southern Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon and collected in Nigeria. They are then shipped, often by sea, to Southeast Asian destinations and ultimately to China’s southeastern provinces, particularly Guangdong and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

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Lead author Timothy Bonebrake, a professor at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Hong Kong, said that while scientists had previously been able to identify pangolin species based on genetics from their scales, the new method allowed them to pinpoint the pangolin’s geographical origins. animals. This can provide important insights into impacts on animals and guide resource allocation for conservation efforts.

When they are hunted, it is often by local communities or possibly [people from] Nearby cities would consume the meat for food. He said they would take off the scales and accumulate them.

Once there is sufficient scale, they are typically shipped to a central location and then shipped, often in bulk, to Asia.

Bonebrake said the new tool can provide information about the sample’s origin within a week of testing.

It’s like a crime show. He said if you find DNA evidence at a crime scene and there’s no criminal in the database, the DNA profile won’t match anyone.

Thanks to our African collaborators, we now have a repository. When we have a scale in Hong Kong, we can run the DNA sequence, use the database to get a match and know where it came from.

He said that with increased legal protections in place in 2020 and speculation about a link between the coronavirus and pangolins, more research is needed to understand the impact on the Chinese market.