Proteotypic peptides of hairs for the identification of common European domestic and wild animal species revealed by in-sample protein digestion and mass spectrometry analysis.

The aim of this work is to offer an alternative or complementary analytical tool to the time-consuming and expensive methods commonly used for the recognition of animal species according to their hair. The paper introduces a simple and fast way for species differentiation of animal hairs called in-sample digestion. A total of 10 European animal species, including cat, cow, common degu, dog, fallow deer, goat, horse, sika deer, rabbit, roe deer, and 17 different breeds of dogs were examined using specific tryptic cleavage directly in hair followed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization quadrupole time of flight.