Review on Productive and Reproductive Performances of One- Humped Camel

Review Article

J Drug Discov Develop and Deli. 2023; 9(1): 1045.

Review on Productive and Reproductive Performances of One- Humped Camel

Abubeker Hassan Tahir*; Ashenafi Mengistu

Department of Animal Production Studies, Bishoftu, Ethiopia

*Corresponding author: Abubeker Hassan Tahir Department of Animal Production Studies, Bishoftu, Ethiopia. Email: abibxxx01@gmail.com

Received: August 31, 2023 Accepted: October 06, 2023 Published: October 13, 2023

Summary

This seminar paper reviews reproduction and production performance of one–humped camels. Camels are strongly tolerant to punitive and more hostile climatical and environmental determinants unlike most other animals. They are defined to be ship of desert particularly dromedarian camel. There are three main species, even though there is some controversial, namely C. bacterian, C. one-humped (dromedarian) and C. ferus. They get full maturity at the age range of 3 to 5 years old. Rutting is a special sign for that the bull reached full maturity, it develops a very unique feature that is the dulla (a soft and balloon like tissue that develops in oral cavity during peak maturity). In case of female, it can give first birth at age of 5 years old usually with a single calf which means very rare twining. Camel is mainly kept for milk production, which valuable for human food in the arid environment of camel keeping countries. Camel has the ability to produce milk of good composition and quantity for human consumption even when water is severely restricted. Milk is the main sources of nutrition for pastoralists, neonates calves and provides all essential nutrients for growth and development, e.g. proteins, minerals, carbohydrates, fatty acids, growth factors, immune modulators, etc

Camels have high milk yield and comparatively long milk service period for both their calves and human. Additionally, they highly prefer to consume halophilic plants such as Atriplex which is believed to qualify more the milk. Despite from milk, camels also provide meat as well as hides.

Keywords: One-humped camel; Reproduction; Production

Abbreviations: FAO: Food and Agriculture Organization; PMSG: Pregnant Mare Serum Gonadotropin; CL: Corpus Luteum; SD: Standard Deviation; Ph: Power of Hydrogen; ADH: Antidiuretic Hormone; SNF: Solid Non Fat; IgA/G: Immunoglobulin A and G; NAGase: N-Acetyl-Beta-D-Glucosaminidase; PGRP: Peptidoglycan Recognition Proteins.

Introduction

At the outset, the word camel is said to have been derived from a Greek word ‟kremal” which means “throw away legs” and it makes sense since the camel seems to throw away its legs during movement [15].

Plainly, the word Camelidae encompasses both Old and New world camels including the Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus), the one-humped (Camelus dromedarius), Guanaco (Lama guanicoe), Llama (Lama glama), Viçuna (Vicugna vicugna), and Alpaca (Vicugnapacos) [40].

Almost 95% of the camelids in the Old World are one-humped (dromedaries), and the rest 5% are domestic Bactrian Camels (there are no more than a few thousand wild Bactrian Camels). In the New World, around 47% of camelids are Llamas, 41% Alpacas, 8% Guanacos, and 4% Viçunas. Because of their ability to thrive under tough conditions of extreme temperature and scarce food and water, domesticated Camelids have been extremely important to the development of human cultures in the steppes of Eurasia, the deserts of Africa, and the arid Andes of South America. Earliest Camelids were similar to modern guanaco but rabbit-sized (30 cm at shoulder). All Camelids are diurnal and are adapted to harsh and dry climates and are all highly social [40]. Evolutionarily, there is hesitation about evolutionary relationship between C. bactrianus, C. one- humped, and C. ferus. However, DNA studies demonstrate wild Bactrian camel is not the ancestor of two domesticated species as previously thought and C. ferus is separate lineage and not direct progenitor of C. bactrianus [88], but previously, they were considered to be a sub-species, C. bactrianusferus [45].

Based on the distribution, the Food and Agriculture Organization [35] estimated the total population of camel in the world today to be 25.89 million, in which 89% are one-humped dromedary or Arabian camels and the remaining 11% are the two-humped (Camelus bactrianus) generally found in the cold deserts of central Asia. Hypothetically, over 80% of the world’s camel population is found in Africa with the highest concentration in North East Africa which accounts for 63% of the world camel population. Camels contribute significantly to the livelihood of the pastoralists and agro-pastoralists living in the fragile environments [95].

The 25.89 million of world camel population spread across 47 countries; where Somalia has the highest population of 7 million (though it varies in different publications) followed by Sudan 4.25 million and Ethiopia 2.4 million grading it to be the third largest camel herd in the world After Somalia and Sudan [35]. Even though there are intense global warming and drought, recent studies show the world camel population is increasing regularly with a yearly growth of 3.4% since 1961 [35].

Therefore, the objectives of this seminar are to:-

Review on productive and reproductive performances of one-humped camel.

Reproduction Performance of One-Humped Camel

Reproductive Characters

Puberty time: Puberty was defined as the stage when the animal was able to produce viable sperms or ova. Controversially, the camels get sexually mature at 4 to 5 years of age [32], although a 3-year old camel can be used for reproduction [61]. In the male, full reproductive prowess is not developed until six years [74] or even seven years of age as shown in the table1 [48].