A “good practice” approach to the quality and consistency of morphological examination of the internal head structures of the term rabbit fetus

Comparison of a Modified Mid‐Coronal Sectioning Technique and Wilson's Technique when Conducting Eye and Brain Examinations in Rabbit Teratology Studies

“…There was no fetus among the 11,863 NZW/DB fetuses examined by Wilson's method that only had alterations of the nasal passages or nasal septum. Although this specific type of finding cannot be identified directly by a mid-coronal section of the brain, as French et al (2014) points out, it can be inferred, based on other types of malformations that were identified for external nose including arrhinia, dysgenesis of the nares, agenesis of nasal opening, and unilateral naris.…”

“…Stuckhardt and Poppe (1984) have shown that the mid-coronal transverse sectioning method is an effective way to identify eye abnormalities and hydrocephaly of the brain. However, there is debate about the effectiveness of identifying a hazard with a unmodified mid-coronal section as described by Stuckhardt and Poppe (1984) as it does not allow the examination of nasal cavities or detailed examination of the eyes and brain (French et al, 2014). Both the Stuckhardt and Poppe method (1984) using fresh tissue, and the Van Julsingha and Bennett method (1977) using fixed tissue allow examination of soft tissues including the brain.…”