We all know infectious diseases exist on dairies. They can present as an outbreak, be endemic in the herd or potentially both, and some cattle diseases may even pose a health risk to farm employees.

A postmortem examination is a unique experience because it utilizes the full spectrum of all five senses in order to decipher a case. Upon entering the postmortem room, I hone in on the clues that stimulate my senses.

A busy postmortem room is a very exciting, entreating environment. It is also an important diagnostic tool for a practitioner and a dairy farmer.

The postmortem examination technique, also called necropsy, is not complicated. I like to start by placing the carcass on its left side, cutting the dead animal in the right axilla, and proceeding to open the skin from the mandible to the inguinal region.

In the field of post-mortem examination, experienced pathologists develop a sixth sense. I encountered that sixth sense while a first-year resident at Cornell University, in the middle of a winter morning. At 11 a.m. our lab received a phone call letting us know about seven dead heifers from a farm in upstate New York.