Guest Post: Who Are the Veterinarians Performing Necropsies?

Veterinary anatomic pathologists are responsible for performing necropsies on animals.

What Is Pathology?  

Pathology is the study of disease. It is a core component of human and veterinary medical training and extremely important for understanding the basis of diseases treated in medicine.

What Is a Veterinary Anatomic Pathologist?

Simply put, a veterinary anatomic pathologist is a veterinarian medical examiner for animals.

What Does a Veterinary Anatomic Pathologist Do?

Veterinary anatomic pathologists do many important jobs, including:

• Performing necropsies (autopsies) on animals after they have passed.
• Examining tissues collected from necropsies or collected from a live animal (biopsy) to check for disease, cancer, infection, or injury, often using a microscope.
• Consulting clinical veterinarians or owners directly to explain results and potential next steps forward.

Veterinary anatomic pathologists are the medical examiners of the veterinary world. Using the clues found in tissues, they discover the cause of death, the origins of living pathologies, or the cause of animal cruelty and neglect.

How Does One Become a Veterinary Anatomic Pathologist?

The first step after becoming a veterinarian is to complete special training in a three-year residency program focused on pathology. The second step is to become board certified by passing the exam administered by the American College of Veterinary Pathologists.

Some veterinarian pathologists choose to continue their training through fellowships, Masters, PhD, or post-doctoral programs to further specialize in fields like zoo and wildlife pathology, dermatopathology, neuropathology, forensic pathology, and laboratory animal pathology.

Why Is Their Work Important?

Veterinary anatomic pathologists may not see patients in exam rooms every day, but their work helps provide closure to veterinarians and owners by discovering how pets have died.

They are also critical in helping to understand disease and improving animal health by reducing its spread in population centers, such as farms, laboratories, zoos, and wildlife centers.

Often, the information learned from animals can be translated to disease conditions in humans and visa versa. Thus, their findings help contribute to worldwide One Health initiatives.

Thanks

I’d like to thank my friend and colleague, Dr. Natalie Tocco, for writing this guest post to help provide additional information about necropsies and veterinary anatomic pathologists. Here is Dr. Tocco’s information with links to her social media

Natalie Sylvia Tocco, DVM, MS, DACVP

@deadpetvet.bsky.social

instagram: @dead.pet.vet