Basic guidelines for the collection and submission of decropsy samples
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2012
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The necropsy (postmortem examination) has a critical importance in the
determination of the cause of disease and/or death. However, the necropsy is frequently
not the end of the question and after this procedure, it is necessary to perform additional
techniques (such as histological and microbiological analysis) in order to achieve a final
diagnosis. An interdisciplinary collaboration between pathologists, clinicians,
microbiologists, parasitologists, toxicologists, and molecular biology technicians is
unquestionably advisable to accomplish this goal.
During necropsy, the prosector must perform a thorough examination, an adequate
description of the macroscopic findings, and proper sampling according to animal clinical
signs and history, along with the correct preservation of biological material to perform
subsequent diagnostic procedures as well as further studies and investigations.
Tissue sampling procedures will depend on the ensuing techniques (histology,
microbiology, serology, toxicology, parasitology, cytology, cell culture, molecular
biology, or other techniques) and the prosector needs to be aware of this diversity in order
to correctly sample and ship tissues/organs and not compromise the diagnosis or
investigation.
In this chapter, we describe the basic guidelines for the collection and submission of
necropsy samples, focusing on required basic material and equipment, macroscopic
description, specimen collection/selection, sample preservation, and submission to
laboratories (histopathology, immunohistochemistry, cell culture, in situ hybridization,
microbiology, parasitology, toxicology, and molecular biology), as well as safety
precautions through all steps of the process.