The Prevalence of Blood Groups in Domestic Cats in the Saskatoon and Calgary Areas of Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate blood types of domestic cats in two cities in Western Canada (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and Calgary, Alberta), as well as to determine the risk of mismatched transfusion and neonatal isoerythrolysis. Several cat studies around the world have shown variability in the prevalence of blood types in domestic and pedigree cats. Canadian data based on feline blood types is based out of Montreal. In this study the cohort of cats revealed a higher than anticipated prevalence; of 5% type B and 0.6% AB blood types. In our study, blood typing was performed in 400 domestic cats; 200 in Saskatoon and 200 in Calgary. Blood typing was performed using the gel tube method and the risk of transfusion mismatch (MT) was estimated by adding the risk of a major transfusion reaction and the risk of a minor transfusion reaction. The risk of neonatal isoerythrolysis (NI) was estimated according to the equation (p²)(q²) + 2pq(q²), with q being the b allele frequency and p = 1 -q. There was an identical frequency for feline blood types in both Saskatoon and Calgary cats, with 96% type A, 4% type B, and 0% AB. Based on these percentages, the risks of MT and NI in domestic cats were 7.6 and 4 % respectively. The frequency of type B cats in the population was similar to that in the previous Canadian study. These results demonstrate regional differences in prevalence of type B blood in domestic shorthairs across the world and serve to reinforce recommendations to blood type prior to transfusion or mating.

Prevalence of Blood Types and Alloantibodies of the AB Blood Group System in Non-Pedigree Cats from Northern (Lombardy) and Southern (Sicily) Italy

“…This epidemiological study confirmed the prevalence of type-A blood at a worldwide high level in both investigated areas of Northern (Lombardy) and Southern (Sicily) Italy compared to studies in non-pedigree cats in Europe [9,14,25,[41][42][43][44], America [8,10,23,29,37,45] Australia [27,28] and Asia [13,22,[46][47][48]. Although the prevalence of type-A cats in Southern Italy was significantly lower than in Northern Italy, blood type-A is more prevalent in southern cats as has previously been reported in non-pedigree cats from Northern and Central Italy [12,[32][33][34], in Ragdolls in Northern Italy [38] and in Maine Coons in Central Italy [35].…”

“…However, no type-AB cats were found in early studies in Central Italy [26,33]. Type-AB blood is rare (≤1%) in non-pedigree cats in most studies [8,10,11,14,16,27,29,37,38,[41][42][43]47,48,50,51]. The prevalence of type-AB blood in non-pedigree cats in Southern Italy was therefore very high and comparable only with that reported in non-pedigree cat populations from Japan (9.7%) and Israel (14.5%) [21,22].…”

“…A large study highlighted a frequency of approximately 1.5% of type-AB in the European cat population, with the majority of type-AB cats being Ragdoll and European domestic shorthair (DSH) breeds [19]. Studies have demonstrated variation in the distribution of blood types in non-pedigree cats, not only among countries, but also within countries [9,14,15,17,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Similarly, alloantibody prevalence may show geographical variation for both blood type-A and B cats [17,30,31].…”

Preliminary Investigation of Bovine Whole Blood Xenotransfusion as a Therapeutic Modality for the Treatment of Anemia in Goats

“…Future research should consider the effect of blood type on outcome in large animal xenotransfusion. Cats have 3 main blood groups ( 31 , 32 ), and over 13 blood groups have been described for dogs ( 33 ). Erroneous blood typing in 2 cats recently led to non-fatal acute hemolytic reactions following xenotransfusion with canine blood ( 6 ).…”

Wild Felids Blood Group System

“…In general, type A blood type is the most common, type B is less common, and type AB is rare, with a global frequency lower than 1%. These frequencies vary geographically between and within countries, with type A being the most common blood type in non-pedigree cat populations in different countries, as reported by several studies worldwide [ 2 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ]. Variations are also described among breeds, with type B showing a high frequency in some pure breeds [ 21 , 48 , 49 , 50 ].…”