The science of pathology is critical to all medicine. It is central to accurate and early diagnoses of disease. The word “pathology” is from ancient Greek, linking “pathos” – a word meaning “experience” or “suffering” and “logia,” which translates as “the study of” or “the history of.”

For most people, the work of pathologists is hidden. These are the scientists who, generally behind the scenes, meticulously examine the organs, bodily fluids and tissue samples of both living patients and the dead (through autopsies), to determine the causes of disease and disease processes. They work like detectives, uncovering clues revealed in the samples they test or the dissections they perform, to advise and inform those who are treating the living, and to solve the disease mysteries of people and creatures who have died. This often provides grieving parties with an important sense of closure. From what many might regard as off-putting and unpleasant, pathologists reveal the outlandish, the curious and the very magical nature of life and death.

The New Bolton Center Pathology Laboratory not only investigates the problems of horses and other large animals whose samples or bodies they are charged with examining, they also work with a variety of external organizations to help detect problems in wild life, agricultural animals and marine species. Pathology is on the front line of disease detection – and New Bolton Center’s pathologists receive many specimens from organizations like the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine, New Jersey. The Laboratory also performs necropsies on dogs and cats on behalf of nonprofits and governmental agencies and occasionally from private individuals anxious to understand the reasons behind their pets’ deaths.

Among the issues they explore is Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in deer and elk that has been slowly spreading from the West Coast to the East in recent years, and is a prion disease producing lesions in the brains of afflicted animals. It is similar to BSE, or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (“Mad Cow Disease”), and while the nation’s Center for Disease Control can find no evidence of any danger to humans at this time, it is a condition in a large animal population hunted by humans that bears constant surveillance. Click here for more on Penn Vet’s perspective on CWD in Pennsylvania.

At New Bolton Center, Dr. Perry Habecker and his laboratory staff perform many tests on a wide variety of species to inform and educate clients and the general public on issues pertinent to their animals’ health and their own health. In fiscal year 2011-2012 alone, the Large Animal Pathology Services processed more than 64 suspected cases of rabies in animals and 469 surgical biopsies (more than half from New Bolton Center’s Widener Hospital), screened more than 700 bovine immunohistochemistry samples for Bovine Viral Diarrhea (an infection in cattle herds that can result in major economic loss from poor reproductive performance), as well as in excess of 17,000 glass slide specimens created to support diagnostics.

The Pathology Laboratory also conducted 672 necropsies, 40 percent of which originated in the Widener Hospital and were mainly equine, and 60 percent from the surrounding region, including New Bolton Center’s own Field Service submissions and those from the Pennsylvania Racing Commission. In addition during that year, Pathology examined 47 aborted bovine fetuses in order to determine their causes and prevent the spread of any contagious or infectious agents within the herds from which the fetuses originated.

The vast array of tests and procedures carried out by New Bolton Center pathologists are vital to the understanding of our patients’ conditions. They work very closely with hospital clinicians, medical laboratory professionals, and other health care professionals and represent a core discipline in both veterinary and human medical schools. They play a critical part in the development of laboratory information systems and represent a unique medical specialty. Pathology touches all medicine, because patient care depends heavily on accurate diagnoses. And the educational value to students and clinicians of being able to see for themselves the lesions associated with an animal’s demise cannot be over-stated.

New Bolton Center and Penn Vet are fortunate to have a highly skilled and dedicated Pathology team. The good outcomes for our patients are dependent on their dedicated and meticulous work. And their work with external organizations represents an “early warning system” for both animal and human health that protects us all.