A necropsy is a postmortem examination. By convention, this term is typically used to denote a postmortem examination of a nonhuman animal, and the term autopsy is used for a postmortem examination of a human; however, the terms are essentially interchangeable, and some veterinary pathologists have argued for the use of a common term to increase communication in the age of “one medicine.” Both terms are derived from Greek words: autopsy is from the word autopsia, meaning the act of seeing for one’s self; necropsy is from the word nekros meaning dead and the suffix –opsis meaning sight. The word autopsy was used in the 1600s, and the word necropsy did not appear until about 200 years later, most likely to replace the two-word term autopsia cadaverum, or to look for oneself at a dead body. We chose the term necropsy for this book because the word is deeply rooted in the long-standing tradition of veterinary pathology and used at Cornell, Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, and many other veterinary schools.

The term necropsy can be used broadly to encompass the entire set of diagnostic procedures that occur after an animal dies; however, in this book, we will use the term to denote the macroscopic or gross examination of the carcass and the process of collecting tissues for histopathology and other ancillary tests. At most diagnostic laboratories, the fee for a necropsy includes both gross examination and microscopic evaluation of the tissues collected during the necropsy; however, for a reduced fee, the formalin-fixed tissues collected by a referring veterinarian or scientist can be processed and examined histologically (we call this type of case a “necropsy in a bottle”). If the clinician is willing to do the necropsy and collect the tissues, the necropsy in a bottle option is often an economically attractive alternative to shipping or transporting the carcass to a diagnostic lab.

In this text, the term prosector will be used for the person performing the necropsy.