Postmortem Abdominal Ultrasound in Healthy Wild Mammals for Application in Forensic Veterinary Medicine.

Diagnostic imaging methods have been used in human medicine to identify and examine cadavers to determine the cause of death. In veterinary medicine, the use of these resources is still scarce and little known, and it is necessary to establish the contribution that methods such as ultrasound could provide to the investigation of the cause of death in domestic and wild animals. Postmortem ultrasonography (PMUS) can help forensic science find injuries that even in conventional necropsy go unnoticed. Thus, knowing the sensitivity and accuracy of the method is important and, therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the applicability of the technique and describe the abdominal ultrasound findings in carcasses of wild mammals that died of natural causes and in different states of autolysis. Considering that wild animals are often found in adverse situations, such as the time elapsed before they are discovered, the conservation temperature and environmental conditions that may mask the true state of autolysis, and since ultrasound is portable, this tool becomes important for the forensic expert's decision-making. Thus, we hypothesise that the application of PMUS is an important alternative for establishing the thanatological state (TS) and the conditions for performing conventional necropsy. The choice of wild mammals was made due to their similarity with domestic mammals, which facilitates the search for literature and standards. Animals received by the Instituto de Criminalística Nacional (National Forensic Institute) of the Federal Police of Brazil were used. Eighteen wild mammal carcasses were examined, in varying autolytic states: three pumas (