Dead animals tell their own story

Food
Autopsy Mink farms and pet dogs are in danger of being infected by wild animals. Animal herds must be monitored for disease, which is why DTU Vet, the National Veterinary Institute performs autopsies on the dead animals.

You can almost taste the stench from the thawed-out predator carcass. But the laboratory technician and the two veterinary surgeons happily joke about as they cut through the sternum of the wild animal, searching for organs in the name of animal health.

“Wild animals can carry lots of diseases that can be transmitted to mink, dogs and—in some cases—humans. Our job is to record the spread of these diseases so that the authorities can combat them effectively,” explains veterinary surgeon Gitte Larsen.

DTU Vet receives parcel post from around the country containing ‘fallen wild game’—dead animals from the Danish countryside. It is mainly wild game consultants from the Danish Nature Agency that find and send the dead animals to the department at Bülowsvej in Frederiksberg. Here the wild animals are frozen to -80 °C to eliminate the risk of infection from certain parasites. The carcasses are then systematically removed from storage so tissue samples can be taken.

“We rarely experience acute outbreaks. Mostly we take samples for our archives. The samples are then analyzed by experts in other parts of the department,” says Elisabeth Holm, who is herself a veterinary surgeon.

Archive samples are examined for bacteria, parasites, tissue disease and viruses. It was precisely a virus outbreak—the deadly puppy disease—that threatened mink farms and pet dogs in summer 2012.

“Using the archive, we were able to determine that the outbreak stemmed from foxes in South West Jutland. Armed with this knowledge, the National Food Institute was able to provide detailed advice on the vaccination of mink farms and other measures,” says Gitte Larsen.

This fox ended its days in a trap.

Mysteries and intestines
Despite the department’s primary aim of preventing major epidemics among Danish animals, staff retain a healthy curiosity in the autopsy room. A gaunt vixen with a bloated abdomen lands on the table, causing the three post-mortem examiners in white coats to confer.

“Is she pregnant, perhaps? She’s certainly an old lady. And she’s missed her dental check-ups,” adds laboratory technician Elsebeth Sørensen.

Gitte Larsen finds her scalpel and pulls out the vixen’s intestines. And sure enough, there is clear evidence of life inside the vixen’s belly. The uterus is empty but inside the stomach are eight semi-decomposed mink pups. The vixen was caught and killed on a mink farm.

“We actually get quite excited when we get sort of thing on the table. That’s when the detective work begins,” says Elsebeth Sørensen.

In June, DTU Vet’s task of monitoring disease among wild animals was extended. The agreement runs until July 2017, with the possibility for extension.