A New Approach in the Evaluation of Dairy Camels: Using Test Day Milk and Morphometric Records

Abstract

In the case of camels, there is little data in the literature on the relationship between body building features and the evaluation of milk yield. In the last decade, a rising interest in camel milk has been observed due to its nutritional and health-promoting properties, resulting in a growing market demand. Despite the remarkable importance of camels, very little improvement in camel breeding and selection for dairy purposes has been achieved. The current study aimed to provide a practical approach to the evaluation of dairy dromedaries based on test day milk and morphometric records. A total of 62 Sindi dairy camels were evaluated and 4176 daily milk records were registered in February, March, April, and May 2021. She-camels were milked twice per day (at morning and evening) by hand before calf sucking. The farming system was intensive with two times feeding. Three measurements had the highest scores in assessing: udder, teats distance and placement, and teats size, which included 45 out of 100 scores. Test day milk records were analysed using a simple repeatability model with two random effects. The range of daily milk yields was estimated between 0.1 to 8.70 kg. The mean of body scores was 77.19 (CI = 74.19–80.19). Daily milk yields moderately correlated with body score (r = +0.27). Additionally, udder circumference and abdomen girth were correlated to milk production. Using test day milk records in breeding programs can be appropriate for the selection and replacement of she-camels, but due to difficulties in accessing these data, using morphometric data is a good criterion for the evaluation of dromedaries in extensive systems.

Dromedary camel’s welfare: literature from 1980 to 2023 with a text mining and topic analysis approach

“…Furthermore, this remarkable increase in records has also been driven by recent international projects and collaborations, such Most of the records on camels came from Asia; this is not surprising considering that Asia has the second-largest Dromedary camel population globally (6). Furthermore, the intensification of Dromedary camel production has been on the increase in Asian countries (9)(10)(11), and these nations boast dedicated research centers focused on camel research (38). Similarly, Iglesias Pastrana et al (39) in their bibliometric research about camels indicated that countries with traditionally well-established camel farming are responsible for the papers with the highest academic impact.…”

“…In recent years, there has been an increase in intensive camel production in peri-urban farms, supplying milk to urban dwellers (9). The growing intensification of camel husbandry systems is determined by the increase in demand for camel milk due to its nutritional and health enhancement benefits (10). The trend towards intensification in camel husbandry is also expected to increase in the coming years due to various reasons, including climate change (11).…”