While on a climbing expedition to Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2001, Sacramento State biological science professor Ruth Ballard and a Graduate Student got the idea to create a Tanzanian DNA database based on the fact that there were still many tribes with unstudied DNA markers. When Ballard approached the Tanzanian government for permission, they asked her to develop a database for the entire country that would help establish and resolve paternity issues and crimes like rape, murder and theft.

“It was a bigger project than I first imagined,” Ballard said. “The government wanted me to leave their country a legacy. We would go out on ’saliva safaris’ in a great, big vehicle for the day,” Ballard said. “We took over 1000 samples from many different tribes.”

According to the article in The State Hornet:

“Due to increasing industrial growth, many Tanzanian men have moved to other cities to find jobs. In the process, most have left their wives and children behind,” Ballard said. “These women and their children are left in abject poverty and are desperate for the ability to force the men to pay for their kids. It’s a bad situation…the women want it solved.”

Ballard, along with agencies that help women and children rise above poverty, is working on trying to make the paternity test affordable and accessible to all women.

If the government enforces the paternity law in a stricter manner, the goal of making the test more readily available for women will be possible.

The team’s next goal involves building a new forensics laboratory in Tanzania so Tanzanian researchers can update their database independently without the need for outside help. The database will play a huge role in helping Tanzanian people with their paternity issues, Ballard said.

Professor Ballard has announced that the Tanzanian database will be featured in the Journal of Forensic Sciences in January.

22 October 2007PARIS (AFP) - Thousands of people took to the streets across France Saturday to protest against a bill going through parliament that would bring in DNA testing for foreigners wishing to join their families here.

Organisers said some 3,000 people attended a march through Paris as part of a “national day of solidarity with foreigners”. Police put the figure at 1,500.

The protests, organised by immigration campaigners, leftist groups and rights organisations, drew between 500 and 1,000 people in Bordeaux and several hundred each in Marseille, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Nantes, Rennes and Dijon.

Among those marching in Paris was Arlette Laguiller, spokeswoman for the far-left Lutte Ouvriere party, who denounced the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy for “pandering to the far-right” with the immigration law.

Demonstrators held banners calling for illegal immigrants to have their status formalised and urging an end to deportations and to “genetic filing”.

Many employed immigrants were among the crowd. Ahmed, a 37-year-old removal man, complained that “we have been paying our taxes for years and we should be regarded by the government as other workers are”.

The immigration bill, which is expected to approved in parliament this week, has met fierce opposition from left-wing critics but also some members of the ruling right, as well as religious leaders and campaigning groups.

Supporters say the measure would make it possible for would-be immigrants to speed up the application process by proving their kinship to family members in France. They point out that 12 other EU countries carry out similar tests.

But opponents say the bill would set a dangerous precedent by making genetic affiliation a criterion for citizenship.

The government was forced to make a series of concessions to the proposed law to win over critics, including introducing the DNA tests only in countries where civil status documents proving kinship are often counterfeited.

AFP

Subject: French news

THE French Parliament yesterday adopted an immigration Bill that has sparked angry debate for introducing DNA testing of foreigners who want to join relatives in France.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has faced street protests and opposition even within his own camp over the Bill, which imposes new conditions for migrants to be reunited with their families.They include possible DNA tests to prove kinship.

The opposition Socialists voted unanimously against the Bill, saying it sets a dangerous precedent by resorting to genetics to determine who gets a place in France, instead of human rights principles.

However Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux defended the Bill before the National Assembly, saying it had been “caricatured” and had fallen victim to “political tactics” instead of “disagreements on principle”.

Mr Hortefeux said 12 European countries already allowed DNA testing of immigration applicants.

France’s Socialist and Communist parties reaffirmed they would ask the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest legal authority, to strike down the Bill.

The Times of India reports that paternity testing in India’s major cities is on the rise.

MUMBAI: It has been one of the original sins etched in the ancient testaments, but its practitioners are now feeling the heat, thanks to new age technology. Increasingly, Mumbai-based married couples who have had serious doubts about the child’s parentage are resorting to DNA finger-printing tests to establish the identity of the parent.

The state-run Forensic Science Lab at Kalina has so far received 40 blood samples from couples who are at war over the parentage of their infants. “We have been receiving these samples from police stations where criminal cases of harassment have been filed and also from family courts where there are ongoing legal disputes about the parentage,” FSL director Rukmini Krishnamurthy told TOI.

Mazagaon resident Praveen Salian is one of the many parents who went for the DNA test recently as he doubted that his two-year-old baby looked like anyone in his family. A radio officer on a merchant vessel, he had in fact separated from his wife a year ago, and filed a divorce plea in the family court.

When the case came up for hearing, the court directed the police to verify this contention by testing the DNA blood samples of the infant and the father. Salian’s plea was found to be true as the infant’s samples did not match with his own and the divorce was granted.

Legal experts fighting paternity suits say there has been an increase in the number of such cases — a by-product of the increasing marital disharmony amongst urban nuclear families. “The DNA test is recognised under the Indian Evidence Act, although it is not conclusive proof and courts still look at supporting evidence if the case is related to harassment and sexual abuse,” counsel Uday Warunjakar said.

Experts say there are two types of paternity suits filed where the DNA fingerprinting test are used. In the first case, a dispute arises over a property and there are many legal heirs claiming their right. “The legal heirs can be found out by testing the blood samples,” Warunjakar said. In the second type of case, which involves couples who doubt their spouse’s fidelity, the DNA tests are done after a harassment case or a divorce plea is filed by one of the partners.

This disturbing urban social trend has gained huge popularity in the west. According to the American association of blood banks, 30% of 3.54 lakh men who took paternity tests in 2003 were not biological fathers of the tested child.

But psychiatrists have a word of caution. “One out of every two case arises due to suspicion and an inherent martial discord between the family. If couples have doubts, then it is good that they conduct a DNA test. But the problems usually does not stop here,” said Harish Shetty, a Mumbai-based psychiatrist.

He says that couples should undergo proper screening and counselling before they undertake the DNA test. “There are other reasons for marital disharmony and they just find this as an excuse for separation. Even if the DNA tests reveal that the child is their own, things may not be the same again if ‘other’ reasons for disharmony have not been resolved,” Shetty said.

Hello, my name is Meagan Cantrell, welcome to my blog! I am the owner of DNA Identifiers of California which provides DNA testing services and products to organizations and the general public. You can visit my site from the link on the right side of the page.

Many of our clients ask interesting questions, which I track and compile in an effort to keep abreast of this ever-changing technology and it’s impact on our lives. I decided to start this blog in an effort to share that information, plus news and current events in the DNA and Genetics community. I hope you find my blog useful and informative. I’ll admit, I am excited to see how it turns out myself!

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