This work was supported by Research Fund of the Istanbul University. Project number: 301/05012005.

Passenger leukocytes (WBC) might have potential adverse effects in recipient dogs particularly in cases of repeated BTs. The aim of this study was to determine the dog erythrocyte antigen (DEA) 1.1 blood type frequency for the Kangal dog, to understand the effects of WBCs transfused in two consecutive pRBCs on some immunological parameters and to detect the fundamental adverse reaction differences between WBC reduced and nonreduced pRBCs on healthy recipients. Kangal dogs (n = 100) have been tested for DEA 1.1 blood type frequency, and 6 of them were chosen as donors. Healthy recipient mongrel dogs randomly assigned to either WBC reduced (n = 12) and nonreduced (n = 12) groups, were compared on different blood withdrawal days (0, 10, 21, 31, and 42) for B lymphocyte, major histocompatibility complex (MHC) I and II, IgG, IgM expressions and neutrophile function tests by using flow cytometry methods. Crossmatching tests were performed prior both transfusions which were conducted according to routine protocols, heart and respiration rate, body temperature and capillary refill time were collected on 0th, 10th, 30th, 60th minutes and 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th, 30th, 42nd, 54th hours post-transfusion. The data sets were analyzed statistically with Anova and repeated Anova. DEA 1.1 negative blood type was determined as 38.30% in the Kangal dog, and 22.41% of the DEA 1.1 positive results were minor agglutinations. No differences were noted for MHC I, II, IgG and IgM expressions and for the phagocytosis, chemotaxis and oxidative burst tests when comparing the effects between groups and days. As expected we did not encounter transfusion reactions, during transfusions that required its termination neither throughout the post-transfusion observation period. The body temperature was statistically different beginning from the 3rd hour post-transfusion for both transfusions (p < 0.001), the interaction between groups and posttransfusion controls was significant only for the first pRBC transfusion (p < 0.05), this was also significant in the evaluation of both transfusion data analyzed together (p < 0.05). In conclusion, DEA 1.1 negativity in Kangal dogs has resulted in a low percentage, the minor agglutinations observed for DEA 1.1 could be the result of a cross-reaction with DEA 1.2 antigen and need to be further analyzed. This study emphasizes importance on the monitorization. WBC reduction is not a common application in veterinary transfusion medicine; nevertheless passenger WBCs might possess unreported detrimental properties.