Evaluation of the veterinary application of a point-of-care device measuring white blood cell counts

A point-of-care device (POCD) for measuring total white blood cell count was evaluated for feline, canine, equine and bovine blood samples collected into EDTA. Mean biases were −9.2% (range, −12% to −6.3%) for feline samples, 20.2% (range, 15.3–25.1%) for canine samples, −7.1% (range, −8.3% to −5.9%) for equine samples, and 0.7% (range, −1.1% to 2.5%) for bovine samples. The results were influenced by the presence of nucleated red blood cells. The POCD provided precise, reliable data for feline, equine and bovine samples but the values obtained for the canine counts were overestimations.