Unit 8

Camel production and management

Camels

 Camels are fascinating creatures that have adapted to survive in

challenging desert environment and their important to human societies
has been significant throughout history.
 Camels have distinctive fatty deposits called humps that serve as
energy reserver.
 Camels are essential for transportation in desert region. They can carry
heavy loads across vast distance.
 Camels belongs to the family camel date and originated in north
america.
 Adult dramedaries camels stand around a felt Linch at the shoulder
Bactrian camel can be taller

Camel breed and selection

There are two types of camels

1,One humped

2,Two hamped

1,One hamped

 The other name is Dramedary camel

 It has one dump
 When food and water are scarce,the camel uses these humps for
energy and water
 They have envolved from the two humped camel type .the evolution
took place in one of the hotter and mare arid areas of the central and
southern arabia.
 Passes shart,finey and spacey distributed coat color
 They have lean tissue ,longer limbs and broad feet
 Inhabits hat arid desert in africa ,india and middle east. A feral
population of dramedary also adapt Australia . Imeartane is very high
essencialy in countries like ethiopia.
 Adapted to traedoor nostrils to eratect the entrance of sandstorm in to
naval cavity
 There life span is between 40 and 50 years
 Their height- head body length ;7.2-11.2 feet
 -soulder length;5.9-6.6 feet (1.8-2 m)

 There are larger than bacterial camel (two humped camel)

 Importance to the hotter areas of africa
 Dromedary camel breed in afar and breed bikaneri
 They have breed purpose.
 They are important for transportation
 Body size/appearance, growth rate ,color , work performance are the
most important traits to select breeding male camels

Breed afar Breed Bikaneri

(multipurpose animal)

Breed purpose milk and work(pack) mainly used for word,

 wool, meat and milk
production
Male weight 400 and 600 kg 670kg

Female weight 300 and 540kg 556kg

Breed size light to medium heavy built

Coat color generally, a shade of varies from dark brown

brown to light brown and from
light red to dark red
Milk yield 2liter per day in 2-3 average daily yield 2.7
milking times to 0.05 liters

Tolerance arid and semi-arid arid and sand with

environment extreme hot and cold
climates
Place of origin India Somalia origin

2. Two humped

 The other name camelus bacteriomes

 They are earliest camels
 There humps use for same purpose as camelus dromedaries
 They are two humped and fatty
 Their skull bones are shorter and wider than those of the dromedary
camels
 Their weight between 990 to 1100 pound
 Long hair grows on the top of their head the lower part of theory neck
and on their Hume and leg
 Adapted to cold area-limited to economic importance
 Found in region with tacky mountains, flat and desserts, satiny plain
and Danes
 Coat color is reddish brown they have short limbs

They live in the cold dessert region of central Asia

 Their height head body length 10 to 11.5 feet (3.2-3.5m)

 Shoulder height –5-2 –5.9 feet (1.6-1.8m)
 Their life span wildlife span is about 50 years, but it ranges between
20-35 years
A critically endangered species of camel living in parts of northeasters China
and southwestern Mongolia

They are closely related to the camel of bacteria

 They are both double humped even toed ungulates native to the
central Asian steps

Breed Kalmyk and breed Alishan are some types of bacteriomes

Skull bone, hair, adaptation and coat color are the criteria or difference of
among dromedary (Arabian camels) Humes, bacteriomes and wild bacterial
(camelus fetus) camels

Breed Kalmyk Breed Alhassan

Breed purpose have a great capacity a multipurpose animal,

to carry loads and to mainly used for work,
work wool and meat
production
Male weight 760kg 680kg

Female weight 650 –700kg 454kg

Breed size large with well- medium
developed skeletal
musculature and hair
cover
Coat color reddish brown to apricot yellow, purple,
blackish brown white
Milk yield

Tolerance adapted to arid and

desert

Place of origin Kazakh China, magnolia

Camel feed and feeding methods

 Camels are very versatile and opportunistic they accept a wide range
of browse species that are often avoided by other animals
 They feed some types of grass species e.g. thorn acacia and salt
bushes. The main camel feeds are tress or bush\they also gaze grasses
when Tressa to browse are not available, camel optionally utilize wet
season herb grasses and cereals
 Supplementing camels feed with both protein (ground cake) and
energy (maize) is strongly recommended to increase camel or oil seed
cakes daily improve the milk yield and therefore the net income on the
dry and wet season
 Camels have a higher salt requirement than other livestock. Many
Ethiopian camel herder offer 0.5kgtable salt per head at 2-month
intervals especially during the wet season
 Camel is a highly resistant to water deprivation they can survive for a
long time without water, but they lost 20% of their body weight camels
can drink 200 liter in 20 minutes camel water requirement is
influenced by dietary and environmental factors such as fry matter
minerals and ambient temperature physiological conditions such as
lactation also influence camels' water requirement

Camel housing

 Camel housing system are categorized into two main classes open
closed. This category is in the basis of the age of the camel their living
environment avail ability of construction materials settlement of the
owners and the animal's expositor to eradicates are also important
matters to consider in camels housing system.
 Mature camels are housed in the fence around the wonders home
during the night and herded during the day on communal grazing lands
 The calves are housed in an enclosure made for keeping claves
separately from the rest of the herd
 The enclosed is constructed with wood and fenced by available piece
of thorn wood and bush plants
 In Ethiopia almost all camel breeders keep their animal in traditional
kraal made up of thorny bushes to reelect the animals from predators

Major diseases of camel and method of their control

  Camels have better potential to resist disease than other livestock
species however they still are susceptible to a wide range of disease
there are
 Pathogenic virus- camel pax, rift valley fever, middle east respiratory
syndrome , pest des petits ruminants, bivane viral diarrhea, Rota virus
 Bacteria disease-
anthrax ,brucellosis,carynebacteriosis,plumonary,affection complex
rickettsiosis
 Parasite- trypanosomiasis, camel pox, contagious
ecthyma,dermatomycasis,eneumoniamange mite infestations

Control is invaluable once a disease is diagnosed

 Separate sick animal (good to have an isolated area)

 Disinfecting is a cornerstone among many controls measures

Camel meat milk production and processing

 Camel is multipurpose animal used for production (meat, milk, wool,

skin) leisure (race tourism, sport beauty, contest) agricultural work

Meat production and processing

 In Ethiopia camel are kept in the arid and semi-arid lowland of Borena,
Ogden and the afar region these are cover 50% of the pastoralist area
in the country
 The weight of an adult camel caries depending on age, sex. Breed,
nutritional status and stomach fill from approximately 320 to 750 kg
come gain this weight between the age of five and seven years in
pastoral production system
 Dressing percentage as in other herbivores range from 45 to 55%
 Meat quality is largely aging dependent good meat is from young
slaughter stock
 Camel meat production has increased at a rate of 2.8% from 123000 to
350,000 tones than in Sudan camel meat markets and camel meat
consumption are not well developed in eastern Africa
 In Egypt and Libya there is encouraging export opportunities
 Camel has low reproductive rate because of they are not efficient meat
producer offtake rate of 3 to 5 % might already constitute a stress on
the camel population
 Camels are rarely slaughtered for home consumption of meat only
occasionally do camel herders slaughter camels at home
 furnals,weddings and religious festivals can be mentioned as examples
of occasions in which slaughtering of camels at home can be observed
 Camel meat is sold at butcher ships in the town such as Dire Dawa,
Harar and Jijiga
 Camel meat production increased at a rate of 2-8 from 123,000 to
356,000 tones

Milk production and processing

 Ethiopia produces about 4.2 million cubic meters of milk annually

according to 2021reports out of this 80 % is cow milk the rest comes
from camels and goats
 Milk is the most important camel production in arid and semi-arid
environment of eastern Africa in this region camel milk is a valuable
food source for humans
 The total dry matter content of camel milk ranges from 12 to 15% the
range of its protein content is 2.7 to 4.5^ and fat content 2.4 to 5.2%
and the lactose content of the milk is 5.5% and it is high content of
vitamin c this may reach 2.4 liter
 Reported daily yields of milk range from 3.5 to over 20 liters the
annual lactation yields vary from 800 to over 4000 liters
 Camel can produce an adequate amount of milk in drought area where
other domestic animals have very low production
 Ethiopia pastoralists produce different fermented camel milk products
such as “Dhanan” is produced by pastoralist in Somali region and
“ititu” is a fermented camel product in Borena zone
 The annual camel milk production in Ethiopia is estimated to be
170,000 tons in 2021
 The country ranks fourth Somali, Kenya, and Mali are the first three
camel mil producers.