Development of novel polymorphic microsatellite markers for four bird species exploited by the illegal wildlife trade in Brazil

Paroaria dominicana, Saltator similis, Sporophila frontalis and Cyanoloxia brissonii are bird species severely exploited by the illegal wildlife trade in Brazil. As part of an effort to characterize the genetic populations within each species to infer the most likely population of origin of seized animals, four microsatellite enriched genomic libraries were constructed and cross amplification of selected primers was tested for all four species. Eight polymorphic loci were selected for P. dominicana with mean observed and expected heterozigosities (mean Ho and He) of 0.750 and 0.768 respectively. Nine were selected for S. similis with mean Ho and He of 0.688 and 0.760. Seven for C. brissonii with mean Ho and He of 0.805 and 0.811. Three loci for S. frontalis with mean Ho and He of 0.851 and 0.903. These markers will be useful for population studies and for the development of paternity tests to be used by commercial breeders.