Veterinary Pathology

Veterinary Pathology is the premier international publication of basic and applied research involving domestic, laboratory, wildlife, marine and zoo animals, and poultry. Bridging the divide between natural and experimental diseases, the journal details the diagnostic investigations of natural and emerging diseases of animals; reports experimental studies enhancing understanding of the mechanisms of specific processes including cancer, infection, immunologic, metabolic and genetically mediated diseases; provides unique insights into animal models of human disease; and presents studies in identification and characterization of environmental (food, plant and chemical) and pharmaceutical hazards.

• Cancer Diagnosis and Prognosis
• Diseases Linked With the Environment
• Etiology and Pathogenesis
• Genetically modified animals
• Genomic, Proteomic and Imaging Technology
• Immunobiology
• Infectious Diseases
• Mechanisms
• Xenobiotic Injury
• Zoonotics

Special Focus Issues

Special Focus: SARS-CoV-2 and Other Zoonotic Respiratory Coronaviruses in Animals (July 2022)
The July 2022 issue presents a collection of articles focused on the role of animals models in the understanding of zoonotic respiratory coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-2. Respiratory coronaviruses have been responsible for multiple zoonotic disease event in the last 20 years, with the COVID-19 pandemic being the most recent and significant example of the zoonotic importance of these viruses. Animal models and pathology play critical roles in understanding the pathogenesis of respiratory coronaviruses. This special focus includes critical reviews on multiple animal models and alternatives to animal models, and original articles on both the pathologic features of these models and of naturally occurring disease in veterinary species. 

Special Focus: Diagnostic Veterinary Oncologic Pathology (September 2021)
The September 2021 issue provides a series of original and review articles that seek further answers to some of the enduring questions of veterinary oncologic pathology. For the diagnostic veterinary pathologist, oncologic pathology remains the cornerstone of any surgical pathology service. With advancements in immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, and molecular analysis, we are better able to refine our diagnoses and provide valuable data that can be used in prognostic studies. Over the last decade, interest in using spontaneously arising neoplasia in companion animals as models for similar human cancers has been renewed and revitalized. These include common but devastating neoplasms such as osteosarcoma, melanoma, and glioma. While there remains much to be elucidated about the pathogenesis and prognosis of companion animal cancer, the articles presented herein provide a window into some of the advancements and refinements that have occurred over the last decade and offer new avenues of exploration.

Special Focus: Regulated Cell Death: Emerging Mechanisms and Current Perspectives in Biology and Pathology (July 2021)
The July 2021 issue features a collection of articles on regulated cell death, a rapidly evolving field that is intrinsic to disease pathogenesis. The understanding of cell death has emerged from the antiquated view of apoptosis vs. necrosis to a complex landscape of multiple highly regulated cell death pathways. A highlight of this issue is a comprehensive review on the emerging forms of regulated cell death including apoptosis, necroptosis, ferroptosis, autophagy, NETosis, and pyroptosis. Additional papers focus on the detection of cell death using Fluoro-Jade C and the role of the NLRP3 inflammasome in Coxiella brunetii infection.

Special Focus: Pathology and Pathogenesis of Immune-Mediated Diseases of Animals (January 2018)

The January 2018 issue focuses on the pathology and pathogenesis of immune-mediated diseases. Immune-mediated diseases share the common element of immune response dysregulation as an intrinsic component of their pathogenesis. These diseases can vary in their clinical manifestations and pathogenesis, but share a common element of their pathogenesis; namely the pathogenesis is driven by a dysregulation of the normal immune response. This issue presents publications ranging from descriptions of natural diseases in domestic animals to the use of translational animal models of human disease. While there is a tremendous breadth of publications, they are all intrinsically connected by inherent role of immune dysregulation.

Special Focus: Pathology of Aging (March 2016)

The March 2016 issue provides a special focus on the pathology of aging. As aging is an intrinsic part of an organisms normal life cycle, it is important to understand the effects of cumulative changes and stressors on tissues and organisms, as these changes provide valuable insights into disease pathogenesis. This issue provides broad insights into age-related findings across multiple species, the use of animal models in aging studies, and the interpretation of age-related findings in the context of postmortem examinations.

Special Focus: Veterinary Forensic Pathology (September 2016)
The September 2016 issue presents a series of articles on forensic pathology. Forensic pathology requires unique considerations and approaches, especially when considering the legal implications of a forensic investigation. This special issue covers a multitude of topics critical to the practice of forensic pathology including evidence collection; the forensic necropsy; forensic entomology; the interpretation of postmortem changes with regards to the postmortem interval; and the mechanism of injury including blunt force trauma, firearms, and sharp injuries. This issue provides critical insights into the importance and practice of forensic pathology.

Special Focus: Modeling Lethal and Emergent Viral Diseases in Laboratory Animals (January 2015)

The January 2015 special issue features publications highlighting the use of animal models to study Ebola virus Zaire, Nipah virus, and Machupo virus. Lethal and emergent viruses have dramatic impacts globally, and animal models serve as critical tools to understand and develop therapeutic approaches for these viruses. These articles highlight the insights gained from modeling emergent viruses in animal models.

Special Focus: Pathology of Bones and Joints (September 2015)

The September 2015 special issue focuses on the pathology of bones and joints. While investigating bone and joint pathology has its unique challenges, this issue tackles these challenges in both diagnostic and experimental settings with a wide spectrum of papers focused on bone and joint pathology. The manuscripts range from publications of the pathogenesis of osteochondrosis to approaches for investigating skeletal deformities in livestock to a reports of oral lesions in the dog, cat, and horse to reviews on models of rheumatoid arthritis, bone metastases, and bone implants and devices.

Special Focus: Investigative Techniques (January 2014)
The January 2014 issue presents a series of articles on investigative techniques used by pathologists in different settings. For many years, hematoxylin and eosin (HE) and other histochemical stains were the main and typically the sole methodology to evaluate disease processes. Electron microscopy (EM), although used sporadically, contributed to the identification of pathogens and the study of disease processes. In the early 1970s, immunohistochemistry (IHC) started to play a role in the identification of pathogens, cell components, and neoplasia. The next significant leap in our ability to understand diseases came with the use of genomics to decipher changes in nucleic acids. These technological advances resulted in the identification of new diseases, reclassification of pathogens, and increased understanding of neoplasia and other entities in human beings and, to a lesser extent, in animals. Next-generation sequencing has a tremendous potential to elucidate the disease process and is currently used in many human and some animal diseases.

Special Focus: Infectious Diseases of Domestic Animals (March 2014)

The March 2014 special issue focuses on the detection, characterization, and pathogenesis of infectious diseases in domestic animals. Veterinary pathologists routinely encounter infectious diseases in their daily practice. Infectious diseases impact all veterinary species from pets to livestock to laboratory animals and pathology plays a critical role in the diagnosis and characterization of infectious diseases. This issue provides insights into the diverse roles infectious diseases play in veterinary species and approaches to detect and studies these diseases.

Special Focus: Celebrating The Second Half-Century of Veterinary Pathology (November 2014)

The November 2014 issue celebrates 50 years of Veterinary Pathology with a pair of reviews on papillomaviruses and brucellosis that revisit papers published in Volume 1. Despite the time that has passed, these topics remain important today.

Special Focus: Diseases of Aquatic Animals (May 2013)
The May 2013 issue presents a series of articles on diseases of aquatic animals. These animals represent an integral component of the species diversity on this planet. Articles in this special focus issue reflect this amazing diversity and criticality of aquatic animals in maintaining the integrity of the aquatic ecosystem. Aquatic animals play an essential role as monitors of the health and wholesomeness of our aquatic environment. They are an important food source. They enrich our human existence with their beauty, grace, and sometimes downright weirdness. Aquarium exhibits of an unseen world are an ever-popular entertainment and education source. Given the importance of aquatic animals in our lives and in the world as a whole, threats to aquatic existence, including disease and environmental issues, must be identified and methods developed to ensure the continuation and sustainability of these amazing life forms well into the future.

Special Focus: Toward a Better Understanding of Mouse Models of Disease (January 2012)
The January 2012 issue focuses on te use of genetically engineered mice in biomedical research forms a cornerstone for advancing our understanding of disease. The phenotyping of mutant mice creates a foundation for defining the normal biology associated with the manipulated gene. However, extensive variation in background lesions and responses to myriad endemic infectious agents, even between in-bred laboratory mouse strains, complexes interpretations of histopathologic findings. The challenges in the evaluation of the genetic manipulation of mice, as an independent variable, should not be underestimated. This special focus issue highlights some of these confounding factors, as well as includes GEM phenotyping information not previously gathered together and/or presented in journal format. This issue will emphasize some of the complexities in evaluating gene modifications in mice and will serve as a reference and a resource for pathologists and researchers alike, in their search to better understand genetic function and disease.

Special Focus: Diagnosis and Prognosis of Companion Animal Neoplastic Diseases (January 2011)
The January 2011 issue focuses on veterinary oncology. A lead manuscript, “Recommended Guidelines for the Conduct and Evaluation of Prognostic Studies in Veterinary Oncology,” represents the consensus of an international group of veterinary pathologists, oncologists, and epidemiologists, highlighting the importance of close collaboration among veterinary pathologists and oncologists to advance our abilities to diagnose, prognosticate, and successfully treat animal cancer. A series of manuscripts focus on the current state of prognostication and diagnosis of canine neoplastic diseases, including melanomas, mast cell tumors, mammary carcinomas, soft tissue sarcomas, myeloid leukemias, and lymphomas. Additional consensus manuscripts address the trimming, margin evaluation, and reporting of surgical biopsy samples, the classification of canine malignant lymphomas, and the grading of mast cell tumors. Additional review papers provide detailed insight into current techniques for the diagnosis of neoplastic disease, such as flow cytometry, and highlight the importance of integrating recently gained molecular understanding, such as loss of heterozygocity, into the evaluation of neoplastic diseases. With the emerging use of dogs and cats as models for human neoplastic diseases, well established and uniformly applied criteria to classify companion animal neoplastic disease will form a cornerstone in extrapolation of learnings across species.

Special Focus: Research Challenges and Animal Models in Biological Defense (September 2010)
The September 2010 issue focuses on research challenges and animal models in biological defense. Medical countermeasures against deadly biological select agents like anthrax, Ebola virus, smallpox and highly pathogenic influenza viruses are greatly needed to combat infections that may arise naturally or through acts of bioterrorism or biowarfare. Animal diseases involving such agents are important in their own right or as models of human infections necessary to develop vaccines, therapeutics or other countermeasures. The articles in this issue illustrate the many scientific, regulatory, safety and security challenges that research with biological select agents and toxins must overcome. They also provide a current knowledge base for animal models of several major select agents. A profound expansion of biomedical defense efforts in the United States and other countries in the last decade has provided numerous opportunities at established and recently minted facilities around the world. This issue seeks to engender, among pathologists and biologists of many disciplines, a better understanding of existing biological threats in order to show the way forward and promote the development of the medical countermeasures.

Special Focus: Emerging Diseases and Global Surveillance (January 2010)
The January 2010 issue focuses on emerging and expanding diseases that have caused significant disruptions in recent years. Bird ‘flu, foot-and-mouth disease, bluetongue, and melamine - all emerged in new places or new hosts to cause economic or public health panics. The articles chronicle the underlying reasons and highlight the global disparities in recognition and response capacities, which will ensure continuing emergence. Opportunities abound for recognizing emerging diseases, creating sound public policies, and promoting programs that protect agricultural and public health. This issue encourages animal health communities, in cooperation with local, state, federal, and international agencies, to develop proactive cooperative programs designed to detect and limit these outbreaks.

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).