Abstract: In this study, the contents of 25 mineral elements in Tan sheep bone samples from Etuokeqian banner of Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Yanchi county of Ningxia autonomous region, Huan county of Gansu province and Dingbian county of Shaanxi province were determined by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The results showed that the distribution characteristics of bone mineral elements in Tan sheep from different regions were different, and the contents of some mineral elements were significantly different among different geographical origins. In addition, through principal component analysis (PCA), cluster analysis (CA), Ca, Cd, Cd, Mg, Mn, Na, P, Rb, Te, and Zn were selected to develop a fingerprint for tracing the geographical origin of Tan sheep. The overall accuracy rates of back substitution test and cross-validation were 87.50% and 86.87%, respectively. The results showed that the 10 mineral elements were effective for identification of the regional origin of Tan sheep bones, and the discriminant model established by using the 10 elements was also effective.

Key words: mineral element; multivariate statistical analysis; fingerprint