Identifying unknown game species: experience with nucleotide sequencing of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene and a subsequent basic local alignment search tool search

Game meat is often a target: for fraudulent labelling. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis on the mitochondrial cytochrome b sequence with subsequent restriction fragment length polymorphism is the most widely used method of identifying meat species. The lack of reference meat species and the possibility of point mutations affecting the typical restriction pattern of a species sometimes results in an analytical uncertainty. Nowadays, sequencing of the PCR fragment with a subsequent search in an internet-accessible database can avoid these problems. The database search results in a list of sequences in order of the highest percentage of correspondence. In this work it is shown what correspondences within different vertebrate classes, orders, families and species can be expected. Classing with the correct genus is possible, at least for game meal.