The human umbilical cord blood (UCB) has been used as stem cell resource. The models for the study of blood and bone marrow stem cells in dogs have provided important information for bone marrow transplants in humans. Several articles report the influence of the kind of delivery in the human UCB characteristics. However, there are no studies on the collection of umbilical cord blood of dogs. This experiment aimed to evaluate the influence of the kind of delivery in the dog UCB hematology. In this study 54 dog fetuses were studied, at the end of the intrauterine life, provided from vaginal (n=24) and cesareans (n=30) deliveries. The blood samples were collected with a 5 mL syringe containing EDTA (1 mg/1 mL of blood). Total count of erythrocytes, leukocytes, and platelets, as well as the determination of globular volume, hemoglobin concentration, and erythrocytic indexes were carried out using an automatic cell counter. The differential count of leukocytes was made in blood smears stained with a mixture of May-Grunwald-Giemsa. Regarding to the erythrogram and the thrombogram, no statistical differences were observed between the samples obtained from vaginal and placental deliveries. The leukogram of the umbilical cord blood collected from vaginal deliveries was greater than cesareans deliveries (P<0.05). Therefore, the kind of delivery influences the hematological values of the umbilical cord of dogs.
hematology; umbilical cord; kind of delivery; dogs
