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

Article

Last updated: 25 Dec 2024

Subjects

-

Tags

Animal, poultry and fish management

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.

DOI

10.21608/javs.2016.61827

Keywords

behaviour, camels, Haematology, Stress, transportation

Authors

First Name

H.

Last Name

Emeash

MiddleName

H.

Affiliation

Department of Animal Behaviour, Management and Development of Animal Wealth, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Beni-Suef University,Beni-Suef, Egypt.

Email

hhemeash@yahoo.com

City

Beni-Suef

Orcid

-

First Name

A.S.

Last Name

Mostafa

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Behaviour, Management and Development of Animal Wealth, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Minia University, Egypt.

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

M.

Last Name

Karmy

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Food Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Aswan University, Aswan, Egypt.

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Fatma

Last Name

Khalil

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Animal Behaviour, Management and Development of Animal Wealth, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Beni-Suef University, Minia, Egypt.

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Mohamed

Last Name

Elhussiny

MiddleName

Z.

Affiliation

Department of Animal Behaviour and Management, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Aswan University, Aswan, Egypt.

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

1

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

9357

Issue Date

2016-10-01

Receive Date

2016-07-10

Publish Date

2016-10-04

Page Start

28

Page End

36

Print ISSN

1687-4072

Online ISSN

2090-3308

Link

https://javs.journals.ekb.eg/article_61827.html

Detail API

https://javs.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=61827

Order

5

Type

Original Article

Type Code

1,095

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Journal of Applied Veterinary Sciences

Publication Link

https://javs.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

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

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023