Assessment of transportation stress in Dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius) by using behavioural and physiological measures

Abstract

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.

Impact of travel by walk and road on testicular hormones, oxidants, traces minerals, and acute phase response biomarkers of dromedary camels

“…All camel bulls of this study except control had low albumin which simulates the decrease of albumin in female camels rather than male camels transported by truck ( Baghshani et al., 2010 ), female camels within 2h after unloading ( Tharwat et al., 2013 ), upon arrival up to 4 days in young bulls ( Cafazzo et al., 2012 ) and contradicts the increase of albumin in camels transported by walk or truck till 18 h after arrival ( Emeash et al., 2016 ), road transported young calves ( Grigor et al., 2001 ) and bulls ( Earley et al., 2010 ). This low albumin as one of the negative acute-phase proteins indicated more stress when using trucks due to loading and unloading that overcame the biochemical adaptive patterns of camels to withstand several physiological and pathological stressors ( Baghshani et al., 2010 ) and that the restriction of feed and water was not enough for camels to resume their normal physiological status within 24h.…”

“…The decrease of globulins observed here was also observed in transported young bulls at arrival ( Padalino et al., 2017 ). In contrast, globulins increased in camels transported by walk or truck till 18 h after arrival ( Emeash et al., 2016 ) and increased in camels starting from 2h after unloading ( Tharwat et al., 2013 ) and in bulls post-transport ( Earley et al., 2010 ).…”

“…In agreement with the decreased total proteins in camel bulls transported by truck, young bulls transported by truck had low total proteins ( Padalino et al., 2017 ) that resulted also after dehydration for 24 days in dromedary camels ( Kataria et al., 2007 ). In contrast, protein concentrations increased from 24h up to day 11 following transport in all transported bulls ( Earley et al., 2010 , 2011 ), in horses ( Cywinska et al., 2012 ), in transported male or female camels at unloading ( Baghshani et al., 2010 ), for <24h in transported female camels during the breeding season ( Saeb et al., 2010 ; Tharwat et al., 2013 ), and in dromedaries transported by walk and truck since the arrival to 18 h later ( Emeash et al., 2016 ) that reflex the long-term food deprivation and transient dehydration ( Niedźwiedź et al., 2012 ). This conflict in the total proteins between our study and transported camels of other studies could be attributed to their adaptation to the adverse transport and environmental conditions.…”

“…Transport has disrupted homeostasis and metabolism, increased the activity of enzymes and hormones, and modified the acute-phase proteins ( Lomborg et al., 2008 ). In dromedary camels, short road transportation by truck transiently increased cortisol and decreased lymphocytes ( Emeash et al., 2016 ) and the increase of cortisol showed a correlation with increasing the distance ( El Khasmi et al., 2015 ). Camels can tolerate dehydration for twenty days to the loss of nearly one-third of their body water content and adapt their body temperature to the environmental temperature to decrease the loss of water, and their kidneys show increased MDA and GSH but decreased SOD whereas dehydration showed no on MDA, GSH, and SOD of the kidney medulla ( Ali et al., 2012 , 2020 ).…”