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Eric,
Here's our experience with preserved cats from BioCorp...
We do muscle dissection in November and vessels/vicera in March and April. We do have a handful of cats that get moldy during that time period but I'd say less than 10%. This year we tried a preservative solution from BioCorp that you spray on the cats...it didn't seem to decrease our occurrence of mold and we saw some hard white nodules develop on cats that had more spray than others. I'm not sure that we'll use the spray again, given that we don't have that many cats that grow mold.. Our incidence of mold in cats from other suppliers (Wards, Carolina) is about the same.
As for storage, the cats are kept in plastic bags at room temp. I have never tried refrigeration but I would guess it might decrease mold growth if you have that option.
Sheri
>>> Eric Dewar <edewar@xxxxxxxxxxx> 05/11/07 2:57 PM >>> Hi folks,
I have a question about preserved cats that I didn't see in the listserv archive: How long do preserved cats last if refrigerated?
Has anyone tried to use cats (preserved in Carolina's "Perfect Solution") for muscles in A&P 1 as well as viscera and circulatory system in A&P 2? I'm used to using the whole animal in a comparative anatomy lab, but not sure how well they weather two semesters of use. Does anyone have a sense of their favorite preservative that prevents decay without being too hard on the students' noses? I know that this is a balance...any opinions would be welcome.
Thanks!
Eric
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Eric W. Dewar
Department of Biology
Suffolk University
Beacon Hill
Boston, MA 02114 USA |