The importance of microstructural analysis of skeletal muscles of commercial animals in forensic examination

Wild animals of the deer family often become objects of illegal hunting. When carcasses of wild animals or their parts are seized from poachers, the inquiry and investigation bodies appoint a forensic examination. During the forensic examination, the expert (group of experts) must answer questions about the species of the seized biological objects, and the number of animals these fragments belong to. The work examined 137 fragments of skeletal muscles of the pelvic limb of the Siberian roe deer. The material was subjected to organoleptic, microstructural and morphometric assessment. For microstructural analysis, histological and histochemical studies of muscle tissue were carried out that preserved anatomical integrity: the gluteus medius muscle (musculus gluteusmedius), the quadriceps femoris muscle (musculus quadriceps femoris), and the gastrocnemius muscle (m.gastrocnemius). Microtome paraffin sections 4-6 μm thick were stained using conventional techniques; the Picro-Mallory and Van Gieson methods were used to identify connective tissue elements; glycogen was detected using the PAS reaction, and sarcolemmal basement membranes were detected using methenamine-silver. Statistically significant differences in the number of muscle fibers in the first-order bundles of the gastrocnemius muscle compared to the quadriceps femoris and gluteus medius muscle were established. The diameter of skeletal muscle fibers in different fragments of the studied samples varied from 17.4 ± 1.54 μm to 45.3 ± 2.38 μm. The obtained data can be used in comparative-species morphology and in forensic examinations of wild animals of the deer family.