Postmortem veterinary toxicology: Animal death investigation and the veterinary diagnostic laboratory

Romano, Michael T.; Dorman, David C.; Gaskill, Cynthia L.

doi:10.1002/wfs2.1375

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 78 publications

(93 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Death of cats can result from injuries inflicted using weapons, both firearms and cold weapons, and also various objects or tools (Doukas, 2022). There have been episodes when the animals were thrown from height, asphyxiated in some way or another, tortured, or poisoned (Romano et al, 2020), leading to lethal outcomes (Nation, 2021). Animals can be found right after their death or at the moment of death, but oftentimes they are found after some time, and then the authorities investigating the case face the necessity of identifying the postmortem interval.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification of time of death of cats according to histological changes in some organs

Serdioucov,

Shkundia,

Kruchynenko

2023

Regul. Mech. Biosyst.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Determining the time of an animal’s death is an extremely relevant subject in the practice of modern forensic medicine, because the issue often arises when investigating crimes related to animal abuse, in particular, with domestic cats Felis silvestris catus (Linnaeus, 1758). Methods of identifying time of cats’ death are currently developed insufficiently and their introduction into the veterinary-forensic practice has been limited, including the histological method we have employed. We used five corpses of cats, from which we periodically, after certain time periods, gathered the material for histological study, sampling such organs as the liver, kidneys, lungs, heart (myocardium), and the skeletal muscles. From the collected material, we made histological sections and stained them with hematoxylin and eosin. We determined the general patterns in changes occurring in the internal organs of cats over time, namely changes in the staining intensity of the cell elements and intercellular structures on the histopreparations; formation of detritus-filled cavities; a number of distinctive changes in the connective-tissue stroma of the organs; emergence of baciliform bacteria in the tissues and formation of their colonies. In the muscle tissue, we found specific features such as loss of alignment and emergence of transversal grooves with subsequent fragmentation. The study revealed that the development of those changes in each organ clearly correlated with time that has passed since each animals had died. Thus, a complex evaluation of detected changes can give a more accurate – compared with other existing methods – assessment of the time of death of a corpse submitted to forensic veterinary examination. We recommend using the histological method for animals presumed to have been dead for no more than 18 days, because later the tissue disintegration reaches such a level that complicates the correlation of changes with time. We consider it promising to study the time of death of domestic cats using other methods for identifying criteria for postmortem intervals longer than 18 days, and also identifying time of death in other species of animals.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification of time of death of cats according to histological changes in some organs

Serdioucov,

Shkundia,

Kruchynenko

2023

Regul. Mech. Biosyst.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Determination of the time of death of a domestic cat by measuring the area of a wet spot

Shkundia,

Serdioucov

2024

Ukrainian journal of veterinary sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Animal cruelty is a criminal offence under the current legislation of Ukraine. When investigating criminal proceedings related to animal cruelty, including domestic cats, it is often necessary to establish the time of death. Therefore, the development of new methods for determining it and improving existing ones is extremely relevant. The purpose of the study was to establish the relationship between the obtained values of wet spot area indicators and the time of death. To achieve this goal, the authors propose a new method for determining the age of death of domestic cats based on the results of measuring the area of a wet spot obtained from skeletal muscle tissue samples of corpses (Shkundia method). To do this, samples of muscle tissue were taken from the corpses of cats, a wet spot preparation was obtained by pressing and its area was calculated to establish a correlation between the values of this indicator and the time that has passed since death. The study of the obtained indicators established that these values are constant, and the features of fluctuations in the values of this indicator with the time elapsed since the death of the animals were established and shown graphically. Using a number of statistical methods, the absence of dependence of wet spot area indicators on the muscles from which samples were taken for research and animal breeds was determined. The nature of changes in the values of the wet spot area indicator depending on time is established and the features of their fluctuations in different periods during 27 days from the moment of animal death were explained. Reference values of these indicators depending on the time elapsed since the death of animals are presented, which can be used by forensic veterinary experts in practical work to determine the time of the occurrence of death of domestic cats. Due to a number of advantages, this method can be widely implemented in the practice of forensic veterinary medicine

show abstract

Postmortem veterinary toxicology: Animal death investigation and the veterinary diagnostic laboratory

Cited by 2 publications

References 78 publications

Identification of time of death of cats according to histological changes in some organs

Identification of time of death of cats according to histological changes in some organs

Determination of the time of death of a domestic cat by measuring the area of a wet spot

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About