Femur, rib, and tooth sample collection for DNA analysis in disaster victim identification (DVI)

Abstract

Although much literature is available on DNA extraction from tissue samples to obtain the best possible genotyping results, to the best of our knowledge no written recommendations exist on how to excise or extract bone and tooth samples from a victim to facilitate this. Because the possibility of cross-contamination is high, especially when excising numerous samples under disaster conditions, it is important to minimize this risk and to keep samples in optimum condition. In this paper a standard operating procedure is proposed for collection of femur, rib, and tooth samples to aid victim identification both after mass disasters and in (single) forensic investigations.