Dog erythrocyte antigen (DEA) 1.1 is the most clinically important blood group in dogs, as negative recipients for this group may develop a life-threatening acute haemolytic transfusion reaction if they receive several DEA 1.1 positive blood transfusions. Due to their physical features, galgos are frequently used as blood donors in clinical practice, however, there are no published data regarding the prevalence of DEA 1.1 in this breed. Expression of DEA 1.1 was determined in 118 galgos and 88 dogs of other breeds being screened as potential blood donors, using an immunochromatographic cartridge typing kit (Quick Test DEA 1.1, Alvedia, Lyon, France). Of the total dogs, 53.4per cent (110/206) were positive for DEA 1.1. The prevalence of DEA 1.1 positive blood among our population of galgos and other-breed dogs were 51.7 per cent (61/118) and 55.7 per cent (49/88), respectively. Potential risk of sensitisation in a recipient of other breed following non-typed blood transfusion using blood from galgos was 22.9 per cent. Due to the clinical significance of DEA 1.1 and the high prevalence of this blood group in galgos of Spain, we strongly recommend blood-typing for this group before administering any blood transfusion using galgos as donors, as with transfusions from other commonly used breeds.

These results confirm that significant haematologic differences exist in Galgos Españoles when compared with other dogs, although these differences are not as striking as in greyhounds. Practitioners need to be aware of these breed-specific differences in order to make accurate diagnoses in Galgos Españoles.

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The Galgo is a member of the sighthound family and is one of the most popular breeds in Spain. Several sighthound breeds have laboratory values that are outside the reference intervals established for the general population of dogs. Serum protein electrophoresis has not been studied in Galgos and they are often interpreted as if they were Greyhounds. However, recent studies suggest that each sighthound breed presents its own specific laboratory features, and the extrapolation of the information described in Greyhounds to other sighthound breeds could lead to misdiagnoses. The aims of this study were as follows: (1) to evaluate the results of serum protein electrophoresis in healthy Galgos and compare them with a control group of age-and gender-matched dogs of other breeds and (2) to determine if serum protein electrophoresis profiles in Galgos are similar to those previously reported in Greyhounds. Serum protein electrophoresis using agarose gel was measured in 30 healthy Galgos and 22 age-and gender-matched control dogs of other breeds to assess any differences. Galgos had higher albumin, β-globulins and albumin to globulin ratio and lower total globulins, α2-globulins and γ-globulins, than those in the control group. These data confirm that Galgos have breedspecific features in serum protein electrophoresis and that those values previously described in Greyhounds should not be extrapolated to Galgos. The knowledge of these breedspecific differences will help avoid misdiagnoses when interpreting serum protein electrophoresis in Galgos.