The mission of the Comparative Pathology Laboratory (CPL) is to provide laboratory animal biologists and researchers the highest quality diagnostic data related to the health of their colony subjects. If you are in the business of managing lab animal colonies, especially rodent species, we have a team that can address your questions regarding health monitoring, environment monitoring, phenotyping of custom bred strains, pathology services, clinical chemistry & hematology analysis related to compound discovery and efficacy. 

The Comparative Pathology Laboratory provides gross necropsy and histopathology services tailored for the diagnosis of spontaneous or infectious diseases in laboratory animals. We offer consultation on management and control strategies, and we field questions regarding the use of animal models in the study of human diseases.  Consultation on experimental pathology procedures, such as post-mortem sample harvest or organ fixation can also be provided.  CPL also serves the UC Davis campus as the research animal diagnostic laboratory. 

We take pride in our personal involvement with your projects, and with our deep levels of experience in management of vivaria and pre-clinical research analysis, we are a resource for many types of organizations.   We serve not only most of the University of California (UC) campuses, but also nationwide academic organizations and commercial biotechnology.

Staff and Training

The CPL staff consists of Comparative Medicine veterinary pathologists, veterinarians, licensed clinical laboratory scientists, UC Davis staff research associates, accounting staff and administrative staff.  In addition, UC Davis Veterinary Medicine students, graduate and undergraduate students and other academic institutions regularly participate in internships.

Facilities and Services

The CPL is located in the UC Davis South Campus, at 1000 Old Davis Road.  The main laboratory is in Building R-1.  Functional areas include separate analytical units for Serology, Molecular Diagnostics, Microbiology, Parasitology, Chemistry and Hematology.  In Building R-2, there are two large Necropsy rooms with downdraft tables and advanced photographic equipment for recording anatomic areas of interest.  In addition, there are separate buildings for administrative offices, archives, a conference area and gowning facilities.  For research and teaching purposes, we have multiheaded microscopy with photographic capabilities.