RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS OF THE 28th ECVIM-CA CONGRESS

Initially, five healthy dogs were enrolled and each dog was fed with a meat‐free protein diet (HA Purina®) then switched to gastrointestinal diet (EN Purina®) with 8 days of wash‐out. No extra foods were permitted, apart from fresh or whey cheeses. The faeces of each dog were tested with Hemoccult® assay the day before starting HA diet and four‐ and five‐day after. Starting from day six and every 4 days, progressive doses of autologous blood (5, 15, 20, 25 and 40 mghgb/kgbw) were administered orally and faeces were daily tested. Faeces were mixed with a wooden spatula before their collections. Thereafter, the same schedule described above was applied to each dog fed with EN diet. Then, the faeces of one dog were collected 6, 18 and 42 hours after a single 40 mghgb/kgbw blood‐added meal. Seven test cards from each time‐point faecal sample were prepared. Tests were assessed every two days until 14‐day after collection. Finally, canine whole blood (18.0 ghgb/dL) was progressively diluted in saline solution and directly applied on a set of three test cards until a negative result was found.