How are the donated animals embalmed for anatomy class?
At Tufts’ University, disposition of the donated animal’s remains within the college’s teaching program is generally not determined prior to death. Therefore, all animals are heparinized prior to death (to prevent clotting of blood), although bodies destined for non-anatomy sections do not need to be heparinized. These animals are not embalmed prior to use, but are frozen. Dr. Kumar, gross anatomist at Tufts University, reports it is possible to embalm donated bodies even after 2-3 days at refrigerated temperatures. Thus, he does not need to wear a pager and “come running” each time a donation is made. Dr. Kumar is able to obtain all 30 dogs needed for small animal gross anatomy within a three month period (April-June). The Veterinary Teaching Hospital at Tufts University has over 20,000 small animal cases per year. Their embalming protocol has been fine-tuned over the course of three years.
