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COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF MATERIAL FOR
TOXICOLOGICAL EXAMINATION

Some points to remember:

1.        A successful toxicological examination requires
appropriate specimens and a thorough history, including
clinical signs, treatment, necropsy findings and
circumstances involved. If a known poison is suspected, a
specific analysis should always be requested.
2.        In all vetero-legal cases, an accurate record of all
the persons keeping the custody of the material from the
time of collection of sample till the final analysis in the
laboratory should be maintained.
3.        If feed or water is suspected as the source of
poisoning, samples of these and any descriptive feed tag
should accompany the tissue specimen. A representative
feed sample should be submitted from the lot involved in
the poisoning.
4.        Specimens should be packed individually.
Containers must be labelled with all information necessary
to identify the specimen, and if mailed, must confirm to
postal regulations.
5.        Specimen should be packed in glass or plastic to
prevent contamination by lead in soldered joints of cans.
Metal tops on jars should also be separated from the
tissue by a layer of plastic or other impervious materials.
6.        No preservative should be added except in the case
of nitrate poisoning. If a preservative is necessary because
of distance from the laboratory, packing in dry ice or ethyl
alcohol (l ml/g of tissue) is advisable. But in the latter case,
a specimen of the alcohol should also be sent. Ingesta and
tissue should be kept separate, as diffusion is likely to
occur between the two.
7.        The preservation of materials is done in 50% of
ethanol (l ml/g/tissue). Tissues and fluids for analysis
should be as fresh as possible, kept in refrigerator or
preserved chemically. Packing with ice is preferred.
Adequate refrigeration is of special importance when
submitting body fluids and materials for nitrate analysis, as
these salts are rapidly metabolised by micro-organisms
and only low or insignificant levels may be found on
analysis. Refrigeration prevents microbial growth and
helps to ensure that the salts are preserved.
8.        In some case, if an adequate amount of involved
feed is available, some of it may be fed to experimental
animals in an effort to produce the signs and lesion
observed in the field cases.
9.        Samples for toxicological examination should not be
washed during collection as washing may lead to the
dilution of the incriminating toxic material.


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