See also the section of PREPARE on Health risks, waste disposal and decontamination.
Necropsies should be planned with the same systematic attention to detail as that required by the in vivo study, to avoid bias or loss of material during the procedure or in storage afterwards. An SOP should be followed for all animals, even in the absence of macroscopic lesions. Necropsy findings unrelated to the study but of potential concern to the facility, breeder or supplier should be reported to the relevant parties. All carcasses should be labelled individually, so that they can be identified even after the routine necropsy has been performed, in case it proves necessary to take more samples, or necropsy more animals, than originally intended.
There may be alternatives to necropsies, such as:
- CT and 3D imaging
- High-resolution ultrasound
Further reading
- Guide to the Necropsy of the Mouse (V. Corvelli)
- Reproducibility of histopathological findings in experimental pathology of the mouse: a sorry tail (Ward et al., 2017)
- Diagnostic necropsy and selected tissue and sample collection in rats and mice (Parkinson et al., 2011; JOVE video)
- Pathology Study Design, Conduct, and Reporting to Achieve Rigor and Reproducibility in Translational Research Using Animal Models (Everitt et al., 2019)
- Use of Severity Grades to Characterize Histopathologic Changes (Schafer et al., 2018)
- Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Nonneoplastic Lesions in Toxicology Studies (Shackelford et al., 2002)
- Revised guides for organ sampling and trimming in rats and mice (joint publication by RITA and NACAD)
- The CLIP principles: Documenting Clinical and Laboratory images in Publications
- Development of a necropsy protocol for newborn mice (Sara Capas Paneda et al., Porto)
- A simplified necropsy technique for mice: making the most out of unscheduled deaths (Scudamore et al., 2014)
- Species-specific pathology and necropsy protocols from the AAZV (American Association of Zoo Veterinarians)
- See the textbook Drug Safety Evaluation which includes chapters on:
- Tissue Sampling and Processing for Histopathology Evaluation (Slaoui et al., 2017)
- Procedures of Necropsy and Tissue Sampling (Fiette, Slaoui & Bauchet, 2017)
- Animal research pathology: regulatory and safety considerations (Wallace & Trundy, 2020)
- Pathology in Biomedical Research: A Mission-Critical Specialty for Reproducibility and Rigor in Translational Research (a special issue of the ILAR Journal, 2018)
- Pathology Methods for the Evaluation of Embryonic and Perinatal Developmental Defects and Lethality in Genetically Engineered Mice (Ward et al., 2011)
- Necropsy Guide: Rodents and the Rabbit (Feldman & Sealy, 1988)
- Color Atlas of Small Animal Necropsy
- The Virtual Mouse Necropsy (this is an old, archived website)
- The Necropsy Book: A Guide for Veterinary Students, Residents, Clinicians, Pathologists and Biological Researchers (King et al., 2014)
- Recommendations for minimum information for publication of experimental pathology data: MINPEPA guidelines (Scudamore et al., 2015)
- The mouse pathology ontology, MPATH; structure and applications (Schofield et al., 2013)
- Disease Models and Mechanisms (DMM)
- Protocols for necropsy of a range of wild animals, from AAZV
Selected textbooks on mouse anatomy and histology (see also the TextBase database, e.g. these favourite products)
- INHAND (International Harmonization of Nomenclature and Diagnostic Criteria) guides to pathology for a range of species
- IMPReSS (International Mouse Phenotyping Resource of Standardised Screens)
- Comparative Anatomy and Histology: A Mouse, Rat and Human Atlas (Treuting, Dintzis & Montine, 2018)
- A Practical Guide to the Histology of the Mouse (Scudamore, 2013) - Chapter 1 covers necropsy of the mouse
- The Laboratory Mouse (Hedrich, 2012)
- A Color Atlas of Sectional Anatomy of the Mouse (Iwaki, Yamashita & Hayakawa, 2001)
MRC Harwell runs advanced training courses on mouse necropsy
Links to more guidance on necropsies are available here.
Links to dissection alternatives