Hair from the Tibetan antelope (Pantholops hogdsonii), or Chiru, is used to create one of the world's finest wool, hence termed 'Shahtoosh'.
Chiru is a protected species and is illegally hunted for the mass-scale collection
of its wool. Another fine quality wool hair derived from Pashmina goat (Capra hircus) is farmed in and around Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir’s Union Territories in India.
Shahtoosh has been considered a status symbol that has led to high global demand,
leading to the severe depletion of Chiru in the wild. We examined the guard and wool
hairs from the confiscated Shahtoosh shawl to identify its origin. We used a combination
of microscopic and molecular techniques to determine the source of the guard hair
collected from five shawls. The microscopic test confirmed the presence of Chiru’s
guard hair in every shawl. Molecular test using DNA sequencing of a partial fragment
of mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b (cyt b) gene from these guard hair positive shahtoosh shawls confirmed fibers of Chiru from
only two samples. Remaining three guard hair positive shahtoosh shawls failed in DNA
extraction. Hence, molecular testing yielded only a 2/5 success rate, but morphological
features detected the fiber of prohibited species from 100% of articles.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 15, 2022
Accepted:
April 14,
2022
Received in revised form:
April 12,
2022
Received:
April 8,
2022
Identification
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