Dried Blood Spots technology for veterinary applications and biological investigations: technical aspects, retrospective analysis, ongoing status and future perspectives

Dried Blood Spots (DBS) technology has become a valuable tool in medical studies, however, in veterinary and biological research DBS technology applications are still limited. Up-to-date no review has comprehensively integrated all the evidence existing across the fields, technologies and animal species. In this paper we summarize the current applications of DBS technology in the mentioned areas, and provide a scope of different types of dried sample carriers (cellulose and non-cellulose), sampling devices, applicable methods for analyte extraction and detection. Mammals, birds, insects and other species are represented as the study objects. Besides the blood, the review considers a variety of specimens, such as milk, saliva, tissue samples and others. The main applications of dried samples highlighted in the review include epidemiological surveys and monitoring for infections agents or specific antibodies for disease/vaccination control in households and wildlife. Besides the genetic investigations, the paper describes detection of environmental contaminants, pregnancy diagnosis and many other useful applications of animal dried samples. The paper also analyses dried sample stability and storage conditions for antibodies, viruses and other substances. Finally, recent developments and future research for DBS technology in veterinary medicine and biological sciences are discussed.