AllAboutFeed - Vol 20 - No 3 - 2012 25

REGIONAL FOCUS

Manager CVRL: “A camel

is not a cow with a hump”

Camels are to the Arab people what horses are to the

Americans. Previously used as a pack animal or for pleasure

such as racing and as show animals, more recently the camel

is considered to be an important supplier of milk for a niche

market. However production is low and development is slow.

Camel farm Camelicious in Dubai is trying to increase milk

yield, but is still in the infant stage regarding management,

nutrition and genetic improvement. With possible European

approval for camel milk imports, a giant market is opening up.

By Dick Ziggers

Camelids are mammals in the order of the even-toed, hoofed animals (as are pigs and ruminants), but have a separate suborder known as padded foot animals. The Camelidae family consists of three genus: Lama (lama and guanaco) and Vicugna (alpaca and vicuña) considered new-world or South American Camelids and the genus Camelus (dromedary and camel) known as old-world Camelids. It is es-timated that there are around 25 mil-lion camels in the world, two million of which are Bactrian camels (with two humps) and 23 million dromedary

camels (one hump). Bactrians and dromedaries are native to 47 countries in the world. They can be found from the northern part of Africa, through the Middle East, India and Turkey, to Kazakhstan and Russia. Being a drought adapted animal, camels are mainly found in a desert country. In these areas humans have an important socio-economic bond with camels. They are special companion animals representing wealth (more or less comparable with horses in the Western world) and used for pleasure (racing and beauty contests), production (milk,

The Dubai Central Veterinary Research Laboratory (CVRL) owns

the largest and most professional camel farm in the world.

26 AllAboutFeed.net - Vol 20 - No 3 - 2012

REGIONAL FOCUS

The Central Veterinary Research Laboratory (CVRL) owns the dairy farm and the

brand Camelicious. The milk is mainly sold as fl avoured milk.

lar mucosa. C3 is a long, intestine-like organ ending in the hind-stomach (H). During motility fl uids are pressed in the glandular sac (GS) for potential absorption,” Nagy explains.

New projectDromedaries have not been considered as valuable milk producing animals in the past - the reason why there is very limited information available on their production potential. At Camelicious, the commercial name for Emirates Industries for Camel Milk and Prod-ucts – EICMP, the average production is 3,314 kg ± 98 kg per animal. The project started with a pilot in Dubai from 2002-2005 and construction of the farm was realised in 2004/05. Commercial operation took off in February 2006. Owned by Sheikh Mo-hammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai, who invested US$20 million in the project, it has become the most hi-tech camel milk dairy in the world. The farm currently has around 150 workers including the people working in the processing unit.Although the farm houses 2,300 cam-els, only 700 are in milk as a result of the complex and long gestation-lacta-tion period. The length of lactation is 586 days ±10 days, with a peak production of almost 9 kg, but a very good persistence: 50% of maximum production is still present in the 16th month of lactation. Gestation time is 390 days. However, a month after a camel calves, milk production drops considerably, and the camel must be dried off. All in all this results in an inter-calving period of 2.5 years. The fi rst calf is born when the mother is of 4-5 years of age. Apart from this long breeding period there are no histori-cal herd book records of the camels at Camelicious. The project was started in 2006 and most camels were pur-chased in the region and abroad. This explains that genetic progress is a matter of patience. “We are at a point where cattle breed-ing started 50-60 years ago,” says Nagy. “To improve the herd the best producing camels are selected and nat-urally mated. There are no experiences

with artifi cial insemination in camels and also production data of the bulls is minimal. To speed up the process as much as possible we make use of embryo transplantation.” Heat detection is complicated as a camel ovulates at the moment of ferti-lisation (like cats). So the follicles are tested with palpation and ultrasound to see if they are ripe. With embryo trans-fer about six embryos are harvested with a 65% fertilisation result.Apart from genetic improvement there is also a need for more knowl-edge on general and udder health, management (such as presence of calf while milking), milking technology and frequency and data recording methods. For example, camels have ‘a mind of their own’ and need to be trained to walk into the milking parlour. Any change in management makes them hesitate about entering. Milking is done with regular cow milking equipment (a camel has four teats), but is that the right way?

Nutrition trialAlso there is a need for more knowl-edge on nutrition of the animals. Cur-rently the camels are fed a daily ration of wheat bran and alfalfa hay. Nagy found that feeding more feed does not result in higher milk yields. The camels increase in weight, which has to do with the function of the hump as a storage of energy. Being a ruminating animal a trial was carried out with Lallemand Animal Nutrition investi-gating the effect of live yeast on rumen micro-fl ora and production parameters. Live yeast has a direct

Peter Nagy manages the camel farm. “We started from scratch with this project in

terms of knowledge and of management.”

D

H

Gs

C3

C2Ca

Oe

C1

Figure 1 – Diagram of camel’s stomach. meat, transportation) and form a base for livelihood in rural areas of poor arid countries for small farmers, nomads and pastoral people.Although camelids ruminate they are not considered ruminants, but their di-gestive tract has much in common with the rumen of a cow. “But a camel is not a cow with a hump,” says Peter Nagy, manager of Camelicious, with 2,300 camels on site of the largest drom-edary farm in the world in Dubai, UAE. “There is difference in morphology, histology and motility of the fore-stom-ach. In the stomach three compartments can be recognised (C1, C2 and C3) as is shown in Figure 1. The dorsal part of C1 is stratifi ed epithelium and the ventral part (C2) is made up by glandu-

AllAboutFeed - Vol 20 - No 3 - 2012 27

effect in the (cow)rumen in enhancing anaerobic conditions (oxygen scaven-ger) and decreases lactic acid accumu-lation. The indirect effect of live yeast is on raising and stabilising rumen pH. Furthermore it enhances fi bre degra-dation and increases the effi ciency of microbial protein production. However, the benefi ts of live yeast differ ac-cording to NDF degradability of the forage. Production parameters of live yeast found in cows are increases in daily yield, feed effi ciency and fat and protein yield.For the trial 90 camels in early lacta-tion were used in June with two dietary treatment groups balanced for produc-tion, days in milk and body weight. Both groups were fed 4 kg wheat bran and 6 kg alfalfa hay daily divided in two portions. One group was supple-mented with 0.5g/animal of live yeast (i.e. 1x1010 cfu) Saccharomyces cerevi-ciae (CNCM I-1077); Levucell SC 20). The trial lasted for 126 days and milk yield, daily feed intake, body weight, milk composition, udder health and blood haematology and biochemistry data were recorded.A signifi cant effect of live yeast was found. Milk yield in the live yeast group showed an increase of about 10% compared to the control (7.98 kg vs 7.26 kg, respectively, P<0.001). In time

there was also a signifi cant effect on bodyweight in favour of the live yeast group (higher weight). The effect on treatment of raw milk chemical com-position was minimal (see Table 1). No differences in milk quality were found.In conclusion it was stated that the use of live yeast: • increased daily milk production by

10% when given post peak period; • increased protein yield in milk by 6%;• optimised protein metabolism (lower

blood creatinine and BUN);• resulted in excellent cost/return

ration (1:35), and • has similar but more pronounced

effect than in dairy cowsThe economic effect of live yeast in this trial was extraordinary, but mainly due to the price that can be obtained for the camel milk. In Dubai camel milk sells for approx. 10 Dh (€2.07) per litre, where cow milk obtains 1.5 Dh/litre (€0.31).

Camel milk marketIn some countries camel milk is mar-keted after collection and pasteurisa-tion in central processing units and factories (India, Kenya, Mauretania, UAE). The Camelicious project is one step further in tapping the enormous potential of the camel milk market, which is estimated by FAO at Dh35bn (€7.2bn). Earlier efforts to export camel milk to the European market stalled on hygiene requirements, but have come a step closer after sam-ples passed inspection by European regulators. The approval follows last year’s rejection of a bid by the Dubai Central Veterinary Research Labora-tory (CVRL), which owns the dairy farm and the brand Camelicious. The country’s animal health system was not found to be rigorous enough. The Dubai food authorities must now comply with European Commission veterinary oversight requirements by September 2013 to obtain a licence. CVRL thinks it can beat that deadline. The challenge is to have the camels give more milk and to increase herds. “We cannot even cover the demand in the UAE,” said lab director Dr Ully

Wernery, according to Dubai’s news-paper, The National. He will travel to Kazakhstan this spring to buy new camel breeding stock. “With 300 to 400 good mothers, we can build on that,” he said. These camels will be put into a breeding programme that aims to quadruple the milking potential of UAE’s camel stock. Camelicious pro-duces about 5,000 litres of milk per day, which is processed on site into consumption milk, yoghurt and milk powder. But this production is hardly enough to cover demand in UAE. Although Camelicious is not the only producer of camel milk (also Al Ain has a camel herd but has no export intentions) it has a serious program for improvement. If the European market opens for UAE camel milk, demand will increase tenfold. Camel milk has less than half the fat and 40% of the cholesterol of cow’s milk, as well as three times the vitamin C level. It can be digested by people who are lactose intolerant and can ease food allergies. But Emirati camels were always bred for racing and not for milk, so better breeding stock is sought after in other countries where milk production in camels is more pronounced such as Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan. But given the long breeding period it will take time before a serious market is established. Wernery estimates that at least 100,000 camels are needed. “This is a huge number of camels. But Middle Eastern countries with camels should start building farms,” he said. AAF

The camels are milked twice a day in a double 2x12

herringbone milking unit.

Control Levucell SC

Milk quantity (kg) 7.26a 7.98b

Fat (%) 2.44 2.48

Fat yield (g) 176.3a 186.9a

Protein (%) 2.82 2.81

Protein yield (g) 199.4a 212.5b

Lactose (%) 4.32b 4.24a

Total solids (%) 10.47 10.42

Solid non fat (%) 8.11 8.02

Different superscripts within the same row indicate significant difference at

P<0.01

Table 1 – Effect of live yeast on raw milk chemical composition.