Practical guide to the bovine necropsy

Food animal veterinarians often have the opportunity to deter­mine the cause of death of bovine patients based on grossly vis­ible pathological changes alone, without the need for additional diagnostic testing. In some production systems (e.g., feedlot, stocker, and some cow-calf operations), a field necropsy is per­formed for almost every mortality; however, for one reason or another, some veterinarians and producers are reluctant to consistently take advantage of performing this procedure. The information collected from postmortem necropsies facilitates ongoing monitoring of disease rates in populations, feeds back into various animal health protocols, and guides decisions per­taining to disease outbreaks. Developing a standardized pro­cedure and employing the appropriate equipment can usually produce a diagnosis very quickly. Furthermore, with the imple­mentation of commonly used technologies, the same principles can be utilized to assist with expanding the geographic area in which diagnoses are made.