We hypothesised that concentrations of interleukin-8 (IL-8), interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) would increase during storage in the third sequential unit (U3) of canine packed red blood cells (PRBC) collected from terminal donors in haemorrhagic shock. We further hypothesised that leucoreduction would prevent cytokine accumulation in U3 and that cytokine concentrations in U3 would be higher than in the first units (U1) collected from the same dogs.