Paternity testing of endangered species of birds by DNA fingerprinting with non-radioactive labelled oligonucleotide probes.

In the last years, DNA fingerprinting became the most powerful tool for identification and paternity testing in man. The success of this method encouraged the German Federal Ministry of Environment, Natural Protection and Reactor Safety to apply DNA fingerprinting in the field of protection of endangered species of birds, such as birds of prey or parrots. In the last three years, we received more than 400 blood and tissue samples of 23 species of birds of prey or parrots, most of them obtained by confiscation, to establish paternity and legal breeding success. We used digoxigenated oligonucleotide probes, mainly (GGAT)4 and (GACA)4 for hybridization. In most cases of confiscated families of birds, paternity testing showed exclusions of nestlings.