Field necropsy techniques and proper specimen submission for investigation of emerging infectious diseases of food animals.

This article briefly reviews criteria for selecting animals for necropsy and outlines necropsy procedure and samples to collect when investigating new or emerging diseases of food animals. It gives recommendations on how to collect samples for submission to a diagnostic laboratory and how to package and ship the samples so that they comply with federal regulations concerning shipment of diagnostic samples that might contain infectious substances. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.