Necropsy protocol for newborn mice

Neonatal mortality is high in laboratory mouse breeding, and causes are poorly understood. Post-mortem analysis of pups is an often overlooked source of information and insight. We present a necropsy protocol for neonatal mice designed for easy practical application by animal technicians.The authors thank all staff at the i3S Animal Facility and the Babraham Institute Biological Support Unit, especially Ana Abreu, Ângela Ribeiro, Urszula Karpinska and Minnie Eve, and the i3S Histology and Electron Microscopy Platform, member of the national infrastructure PPBI - Portuguese Platform of Bioimaging (PPBI-POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022122). This work was financed by FEDER - Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional funds through the COMPETE 2020 - Operacional Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Portugal 2020, and by Portuguese funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia/Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior in the framework of the project PTDC/CVTWEL/1202/2014 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016591)