Storing
Cadaver
Training
Materials
Are these Hors-Oeuvre's Honey?
Per my wife's request [Betsy Perry] I am putting my thoughts to print regarding the proper storage of cadaver materials. My perspective comes from my career in public health. My focus is both on sample integrity and the protections of dog, handler and family. The reader should be aware that public health always views things with an eye towards the "worst case scenario". Not what will happen, but rather what might.
There is little difference between human versus animal product. So if you want to keep it "fresh" refrigeration temperatures between 45 F and 140 F should be the standard for a limited number of days. With food commercially purchased 'disease free' is assured due to FDA inspections. With cadaver product that is not assured and the material has to be considered suspect. No presumption of an un-diseased source should be made. Precautions should be initiated to ensure personal protections and contamination of other items, wherever the material is to be stored. I, personally, would not be comfortable in storing it with foods at all. If this cannot be avoided by using a alternate unit, the product should be double sealed [two layers] in as impermeable of a container as possible. Nothing is totally impermeable, even glass. But glass or metal is as good as you are likely to find. Glass is typically used in the refrigeration storage of many hazardous bio-samples.
Storing in such manner will assure absence of spoilage for a week or two. But spoil it will. And spoilage outside "normal" body temperature ranges tend to favor "thermophilic" bacteria. Thermopiles are the most dangerous precisely because they are usually absent in nature and man has no or little defense against them. Meaning they can be very harmful, as B. Legion Ella, which is a potentially fatal bacteria that likes to grow in air conditioner cooling towers [Legionnaires disease]. Additionally the purpose and motivations of dog handlers adds to the potential problem. With food, at first notice that the item is spoiling, it is tossed and the potential consumer is protected. With this material and the need to deal with it as it putrefies, the dangers are increased. The self-preservationist sanity of 'throw it out cause it stinks' is being over-ridden by the higher purpose of 'if it stinks worse it will be better'.
Freezing at below 4 F is the alternate long storage method. Although plastics are more permeable, double bagging would be preferred and I would probably final seal it in a glass jar. Single vacuum sealing small portions in individual bags and jarring is probably sufficient. But personally, I would double vacuum seal and then co-mingle in a mason type jar. The processing should be accomplished in one session to minimize exposure. Better safe than sorry. Individual sample processing and bagging into per use portions avoids repeated accessing of a large chunk. The less exposure the better. If you think of the product in it's worst case scenario it is potentially no worse than fecal samples which are routinely stored under refrigeration or can be held frozen.
A bit of chain-of-custody work should be included for anyone sufficiently motivated enough to get involved in this. That means attempting to isolate and ascertain the reasonable level of quality of the product. This material should not be acquired from a second hand body shop, if you all know what I mean. But even materials coming from reputable sources should be qualified to ensure the source was not an individual who met his end from some mysterious communicable illness, intoxication of some sort [think chemistry], or other mysterious ends [perhaps parasites]. Coroners and natural death would be preferred over a sample from some unexplained death case the police were working on. And samples should come from the least suspect parts of the subject such as muscle and fat, rather than organs and nerve/spinal/brain or blood materials. Although fats tend to accumulate and concentrate some components, the risk is probably no worse than muscle material. But that is speculative. Fish concentrate the nasties they swim through in their fats. An ameliorating factor is that we are not considering consumption as intended use.
Betsy was "lucky" enough to get some dental material from a willing dentist. I shared her delight; can you imagine! But now in hindsight, I wonder if this was a wise thing to do. And a right way to think. If the teeth had to be extracted they were diseased. Since there were a number of teeth involved [think multiple patients], it also meant an increase in probability that one of the patients may have been ill. The knowledge of the various patient's overall health was not as thoroughly researched in a dental office as would be in cases of death and coroner involvement. And coroners can be asked to sort for as safe a sample as possible and should be open and understanding to that type of request.
Minimize your risk. Also minimize the risk to your dog. The types of personal protections used by ambulance people are appropriate. Think HIV and worse. Dogs should be isolated from having access to samples. This means not giving the four legged marvel direct access. I think "dog people" are much too cavalier with this. I hear them say that it is impossible to keep dogs "out of samples". But that is just noise to keep from having to bother to assure that it does not happen. That is truly foolhardy and running a risk that your dog and then subsequently you, might die as a result of being too lazy to do it right. So scenting an inanimate object and using it rather than the actual sample during search training would be the appropriate method. Under no circumstances should your beast be endangered by allowing it access to the sample materials themselves. Refrigeration nor freezing, kill everything bad that might exist within the samples. They are just put into stasis, in spore forms, cysts, or chemical constructs. And when you reward little 'tootsie-wootsie' with a kissie-pooh for being such a good boy, you might be getting back a reward you never wished you'd gotten. The stuff you hear about dog's mouths and their saliva having miraculous disinfectant properties are wishful thinking and diversions from sane sanitary reasoning.
Where it really gets complicated is in sample wholesomeness. Refrigeration and freezing fosters unnatural spoilage by favoring pathogens that do not normally cause such spoilage. This could be argued in arctic regions, but that's not where we live. Besides the potential harm to you and your dog as already discussed, I would wonder about the sample's odors. That is whether it would be comparable to what you would have under "normal" conditions. Enclosed cool damp environments would tend to favor flora, as molds. And anaerobes versus aerobes. In addition, pathogens tend to alter their environment in such a way as to beneficial to them. Molds tend to raise PH levels making the environment unsuitable for bacteria. So this becomes a difficult one to grasp. Buried bodies could be subject to anaerobic or aerobic decomposition too. The more natural the decomposition [at normal temperatures] the closer the odor will be to what you would be looking for out in the field. The more the decomposition occurs in the refrigerator, the less normal it is, the less normal it will smell. But the flip side is that there is always winter and that bodies out-afield could putrefy in refrigeration temperatures during spring thaw. Or if deeply buried where things are pretty cool. Perhaps allowing samples to "age" underground for a few days would tend to balance out the pathogen proportions [between flora and fauna] that refrigeration tends to throw off from normal. But the altered PH may not allow it. So it is very complicated.
Be careful out there. Children should not try this at home. Play worst case scenario when it comes to personal protection. Seriously! If it is a choice between achieving the perfect sample versus endangering your good health, go with health. Do not allow your well intended purposes and goals to cloud your self protecting good sense. And protect your sources. There is no doubt some Public Health codes, if not broken, are being severely stretched to allow most of you access to these products. If you were to get ill or worse, the coroner would have a lot of explaining to do. So appreciate him or her, but also take on the responsibility of handling this material professionally and discreetly. I suggest higher credentialed person's than I, perhaps in microbiology and medicine should be sought out for their input in this. I am also aware that there are "forensic experts" who are burying bodies and monitoring the decay process to assist in their fields of endeavor. They no doubt would have much to contribute.
Hope this helps. Vilnis Neilands. vilnis@boreal.org 218.387.9479
Vilnis Neilands is a retired senior sanitarian from the State of New York. He now resides in Minnesota with his wife, Elizabeth Perry who is a dog handler with Northstar Search and Rescue Dog Association.
K-9
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