is a non‐profit organization for the advancement of comparative pathology education. It is widely used by veterinary schools to teach basic necropsy techniques to veterinary students. It is an inexpensive manual and contains an organ‐based approach to a necropsy, including many drawings. The information on patterns is particularly useful for making the best decisions during the gross necropsy for sample collection. It is available at http://store.cldavis.org/thenecropsybookfifthedition.aspx3 Necropsy Guide for Dogs, Cats, and Small Mammals, 1st Edition by Sean P. McDonough and Teresa Southard (editors). This book has “how‐to” guides, but also has many very useful photos of common diseases, common artifacts, and methods of fixation and sampling.
4 Necropsy of Wild Animals by Linda Munson DVM, Ph.D. This is a PDF document available on the web, composed by Dr. Linda Munson, and maintained by the University of California's Wildlife Health Services. It can be found at http://www.cldavis.org/ghpn/tools/Necropsy%20of%20Wild%20Animals.pdf. It is an excellent reference for the steps in a complete necropsy, including drawings, and the “models” are felines and canids. The site includes a comprehensive tissue checklist for the collection of samples during a necropsy.
5 Dairy Cattle Necropsy Manual by Julie Severidt, Dennis Madden, Gary Mason, Frank Garry, and Dan Gould. This is a web‐based set of directions, with color photographs, for a necropsy of a ruminant. It is available from Colorado State at http://csu‐cvmbs.colostate.edu/Documents/ilm‐dairy‐cow‐necropsy‐manual.pdf. It has a well thought out discussion of considerations for sample shipping. See Table 5.3
5.4.2.2 Opening the Animal for Analysis and Sampling
It is important to think about the samples that should be collected PRIOR to the necropsy and have materials at hand that are necessary for collection. Samples destined for microbiology or other infectious disease diagnostics should be taken first, with sterile instruments if possible, and with minimal handling. If a sample needs to be refrigerated or frozen, do so as soon as possible after collection. While many pre‐mortem tests can be performed postmortem, tissues collected postmortem, if collected properly, can be more accurate for establishing the cause of disease. For example, a culture of lung tissue to diagnose a bacterial cause of pneumonia is more accurate than a culture from an oropharyngeal swab that would contain several potential commensal bacteria.
Table 5.3 Resources for performing a complete necropsy.
| Resource | Author |
|---|---|
| Veterinary Necropsy Report Checklist and Guidelines form (DD Form 1626) | Armed Forces Institute for Pathology (AFIP), Division of Veterinary Pathology. https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/forms/dd/dd1626.pdf |
| The Necropsy Book | John M. King, Lois Roth‐Johnson, David C. Dodd and Marion E. Newsom. http://store.cldavis.org/thenecropsybookfifthedition.aspx |
| Necropsy Guide for Dogs, Cats, and Small Mammals, 1st Edition | Sean P. McDonough and Teresa Southard, editors |
| Necropsy of Wild Animals | Linda Munson http://www.cldavis.org/ghpn/tools/Necropsy%20of%20Wild%20Animals.pdf |
| Dairy Cattle Necropsy Manual | Julie Severidt, Dennis Madden, Gary Mason, Frank Garry, and Dan Gould. http://csu‐cvmbs.colostate.edu/Documents/ilm‐dairy‐cow‐necropsy‐manual.pdf. |
5.4.2.3 Necropsy Analysis and Sampling, a Beginning
1 Place the carcass on its left side.
2 Assess the general condition.Determine the nutritional state of the animal. This can be done using a body condition scoring system but should also include looking for external (subcutaneous) and internal fat stores. In most animals, stores of fat surrounding the kidney and the heart are the longest retained, so these should be specifically examined if emaciation is suspected. Note the muscle mass of the animal.
3 Oral examNote the condition of the teeth, look for masses or ulcers on the lingual, buccal and/or gingival mucosa.
4 Cut the skin along the ventral midline from the chin to the tail.
5 Reflect the right limbs by cutting through the muscles to the hip and shoulder joints.Reflect the skin to the level of the backbone (See Figure 5.3).
6 Open the two body cavities (abdomen, chest):Open the abdominal cavity by cutting through the body wall musculature along the caudal border of the ribcage and extend the cut to the pelvic region. Open the right side of the chest cavity by cutting the ribs along the sternum and adjacent to the backbone (see Figure 5.3).Record any abnormal locations or sizes of organs.Figure 5.3 Prepare to open the animal by reflecting the skin. A cut along the thin, black solid line will reveal the abdominal cavity; continue the incision across the pelvic region and along the ventral midline. Open the thoracic cavity by cutting the ribs along the dotted line to the thoracic inlet and finish the opening by cutting each rib just dorsal to the vertebrae.Record the quantity, color, and contents of any fluids in the body cavities.Note the amount and quality of food in the digestive tract.If samples of organs are to be taken for culture or microbe analysis of any type, do so early, before they have been removed and handled. A description of the best samples to take for common shelter problems is provided in the next section.
7 The organ systems should be examined in a methodical manner, which can be guided by any of the resource sites listed in the previous section. A tissue checklist should be on hand. For samples destined for histopathology, a sharp knife or scalpel should be used, the tissues held at the edges only and quickly placed in formalin. If a complete necropsy is desired (e.g. if there is a sudden death) samples should be taken from all listed organs (refer to the tissue checklist), including normal and abnormal regions. Samples that include both abnormal areas and surrounding normal areas are best. Do not scrape surfaces of tissues. Histopathology samples from any organ should be no thicker than 1 cm so that formalin penetration of the tissue is adequate, but multiple samples should be taken so that they represent the range of lesions (See Figure 5.4)Figure 5.4 A properly opened body ready for diagnostic sampling.
8 Specific tissues to sample in the case of gastrointestinal or respiratory disease are listed separately later in the chapter. For shipping, if the appropriate ratio for fixation has been used (10 formalin:1 tissue), and there has been an appropriate time of fixation, most of the formalin can be removed once the specimen is fixed. It is important to leave just enough formalin so the sample does not dry during shipment. Proper fixation
