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Background Temperament is an important issue that must be taken into consideration when purchasing horses for leisure, racing, or even work in the fields. Those who work with horses have various opinions about the relationship between a horse’s body characteristics and its temperament, but few scientific papers on this issue have been published. The objective of this study was to clarify the relationships of horse temperament with sex, breed, age, and body characteristics to help purchasers when selecting a horse with the desired temperament. A web-based survey consisting of a 32-item questionnaire was used to clarify the associations of sex, breed, age, and body characteristics with a horse’s temperament. The owners of a total of 112 horses from different countries (Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, and Iraq) were recruited to fill in the questionnaire about their horses. Results The results showed statistically significant associations of sex and breed with temperament with 89.7% and 108.3%, respectively (p values < 0.001), while there was no significant association between age and temperament (chi-square p value 0.58). The results also clarified significant associations between body characteristics (color, head and body marks, leg marks, and whorls) and temperament (all chi-square p-values < 0.001). Conclusion Purchasers can predict a horse’s temperament from its sex, breed, and body characteristics, including coat color, body and leg marks, and whorls

A dequate learning capability is essential for survival and social adaptation of human, animals and birds. Young animals must learn many things rapidly such as escaping from predators (Heckman, 2007). Hence, learning impairment by neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) may threaten animal life. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an irreversible, progressive neurodegenerative disorder which characterized by learning and memory impairments which caused by diminished level of acetylcholine, reduced biogenic amines, increased oxidative stress and antioxidant enzyme disturbance. In addition it characterized pathologically by brain size reduction, degeneration and death of hippocampal neurons, aggregations of senile amyloid plaques and tau proteins (Dobhal et al., 2013; Yin et al., 2013; Haider et al., 2014). Several In vivo studies were performed to assess the potential role of metals in the pathogenesis of AD, where an increase in aluminium (Al3+) and other metals concentrations were detected in several brain areas of rats administered aluminium chloride for six months (Fattoretti et al., 2004).

Transportation is often considered as one of the main causes of stress raising considerable interest, both in animal welfare and economic fields. Stressful transportation of camel may cause severe welfare consequences and economic losses. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess the stress resulting from transportation of Dromedary Camel (Camelus dromedarius) by measuring some behavioural and physiological responses. Camels were imported from Dongola quarantine in Sudan to Arqueen (at the borders between Egypt and Sudan) by walking for about 450 km. After that, camels are transported from Arqueen to Abu Simble quarantine in Aswan. According to method of transportation, camels were randomly assigned into three groups; group 1 (camels were transported by trucks for about 150 km, taking about 2-3 h), group 2 (camels were transported by walking for about 90 km, lasting for about 24 h), and group 3 (non-transported camels). In Abu Simble quarantine, 30 healthy males (5-7 years and 300-400 kg b.wt.) were selected for each group (three replicates for each). Some behaviours were selected from the ethogram and are used in the analysis which include comfort (recumbency and standing), ingestive (feeding and rumination), eliminative (defecation and urination) and body care (rubbing, scratching and nipping). All behaviours were recorded in the morning and afternoon by direct personal observation for 60 min with an interval of 5 min and calculated as a frequency per total observation time. Furthermore, blood samples were collected just after arrival of camels (T0) and at 18 h after arrival (T18) for hematological examination (PCV%, total RBCs and WBCs) and measurement of some blood parameters including total protein, albumin, globulin, glucose and cortisol. The results revealed that the frequency of standing, feeding, defecation, urination, scratching and total body care behaviours, were significantly decreased in group 1 (81.24, 33.51, 6.48, 9.12, 3.87 and 12.80) and group 2 (10.80, 31.67, 1.40, 2.19, 1.25 and 10.96) including transported camels in comparison to control group (97.26, 47.62, 12.16, 16.44, 12.88 and 21.06) respectively. The frequency of recumbancy was increased in transported groups as compared to control one. The results of haematological examination indicated that there is a significant increase in PCV% and neutrophil count and a significant decrease in lymphocyte count in groups 1 and 2 as compared to control one. Camels transported by trucks had a significant high level of cortisol at T0 (17.21 µg/dl) and T18 (6.14 µg/dl) in comparison to other groups. In conclusion, transportation of camels either by trucks or walk imposes a marked stress upon them as indicated by behavioural and physiological measures.

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