Twenty years of the Latin American Society of Forensic Genetics

Abstract

Introduction: The Latin American Society of Forensic Genetics, since 2003, organizes collaborative interlaboratory comparison exercises in order to support the strengthening of forensic genetics laboratories in Latin America. Objective: Present the results of the analysis of the quality exercise corresponding to the year 2022. Methodology: a practical exercise was designed with five samples: two buccal swabs (M1 and M2), a blood sample in FTA (M3), a mixed sample of blood-semen in FTA (M4) and a bone remainder (M5), the SLAGF quality exercise being the only group that includes bone samples in its quality exercise. A theoretical exercise with six cases was also sent; two contained a mutation in a specific marker, one consisted of a maternal exclusion, another of a paternal exclusion, a trio simple paternity and a case of missing person identification, with reference samples from a presumed daughter; his mother and grandmother and paternal uncles, the theoretical exercises are available at: http://slagf.org/resultados-control-slagf-2022/x Results: 16 laboratories and five experts participated. In the practical exercise, the mixture samples and the bone remains presented the greatest challenges, the consensus per sample was 100% for M1, 93.75% for M2, 87.5% for M3, 0% for M4 and of 75% for M5. Conclusion: the challenges faced by Latin American forensic genetics laboratories, reflected by this exercise, are similar to those encountered by other groups that carry out quality exercises in forensic genetics.