Page 414 - The Veterinary Laboratory and Field Manual 3rd Edition

Pathology/cytology 383

Figure 8.17 Laboratory technician setting out to per-
form a post-mortem. It is often necessary to travel to
villages to determine the cause of death in livestock
because in many cases it is not possible for the farmer
to transport the carcass to the laboratory. The techni-
cian’s field kit needs to be easy to carry but should
contain a good knife, a selection of sample collection
materials, a note book, recording pen and marker pen,
plastic gloves and a sachet of disinfectant.

Figure 8.18 If a post-mortem is carried out under
field conditions it is important to explain each step
of the process to the farmer. In many cases the
owner of the animal may want to sell the meat from
the dead animal for human consumption and may
be wary of giving a full case history. It is important
to develop a good relationship between labora-
tory and extension staff and local farmers so that
the needs of all groups can be successfully met.
In this case the local laboratory had only recently
started performing field post-mortems at the farm-
er’s request to comply with the requirements of a
government law requiring all meat to be certified
fit for consumption. The animal examined had evi- Figure 8.19 Skin rash seen in a pig with Erysipelothrix
dence of heavy liver fluke infection and various tape insidiosa sp. (now E. rhusiopathiae) infection. This
worm cysts but the meat was certified suitable for pig was treated with antibiotics and subsequently
consumption as long as it was well cooked. The recovered. See also Plate 37.
importance of parasite control was highlighted to
the famer who was subsequently more interested
in accepting diagnostic help from the laboratory and
anthelmintic support from the animal health exten-
sion service. Khaling village, Eastern Bhutan.

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