A novel method to identify yak fiber in textile

Yak down and brown cashmere share a high similarity in morphological appearance, so that either bleached or dyed samples might not be differentiated visually. False declaration and adulteration with relatively cheap yak down is quite common in brown cashmere products due to the lure of high profits. We provide a novel and effective method based on deoxyribonucleic acid analysis technology to identify yak down by designing a set of TaqMan minor groove binder polymerase chain reaction primers and a probe that can react specifically to the yak 12S ribosomal ribonucleic acid gene. The method can be applied directly to identify yak fiber products and to examine the quality of cashmere products.