Faculty, fellows, and residents in Comparative Pathology facilitate identification and resolution of naturally occurring disease outbreaks in the institutional animal colonies. Pathologists are alerted to disease problems by interactions between Comparative Medicine clinical laboratory animal veterinarians and primary investigators or through the sentinel animal program. Comparative Pathology postdoctoral fellows and residents perform complete gross and histopathologic examinations of animals submitted for postmortem evaluation in close consultation with pathology faculty.
Every case is formally reviewed by a board-certified veterinary pathologist and a final report is then sent to the investigator and entered into the computerized Comparative Medicine pathology database. More than 50,000 archived cases are available at Johns Hopkins for review.
The comparative pathology faculty also serves an integral role in a consortium of regional institutions, including the National Aquarium, the National Zoo and the Baltimore Zoo, with a common interest in Comparative Pathology. These interactions provide diagnostic support for these institutions and also foster research collaborations.
