The nutritional requirements of camel
Wilson R.T.
in
Tisserand J.-L. (ed.).
Séminaire sur la digestion, la nutrition et l'alimentation du dromadaire
Zaragoza : CIHEAM
Options Méditerranéennes : Série A. Séminaires Méditerranéens; n. 2
1989
pages 171-179
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Wilson R.T. Th e n u trition al requ iremen ts of camel. In : Tisserand J.-L. (ed.). Séminaire sur la
digestion, la nutrition et l'alimentation du dromadaire. Zaragoza : CIHEAM, 1989. p. 171-179 (Options
Méditerranéennes : Série A. Séminaires Méditerranéens; n. 2)
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CIHEAM - Options Mediterraneennes
of camel
WILSON,
T.
I.L.C.A.
ADDIS ABABA (ETHIOPIA)
-
3 poches et
la
à
se
a une motilité
est capable
peut
à
des bovins.
- The anatomy and physiology of the dromedary digestive tract present certain particularities with respect to the typical
from that a ruminant.The dromedary seems
ruminant. The stomach has only 3 compartment, thefirst one having a very disferent motilily
particularly fit to recycling blood urea through saliva.
capable to greatly select its food and to feed basically from shrubs and
underbricsh. can withstand harsh watering conditions. Assessment of its nutritional requirements remains very empirical and ofen
inferred from cattle requirements.
words: Dromedary, digestion, nutritional requirements.
on
on all
of data
all the species of camelids and
is not confined to
on Camelus dromeduriusalone.
Pharynx and oesophagus
aspects of the
The
oesophagus
is a long and
tubewhita
it into
The
1-2 m. long and of
function to
the
Anatomy of the digestive tract
food.
The mouth and upper throat
Stomachs
and split
lip which is
plant
The
lip is
and pendulous. The
dental pad is
and
The
of the
like in
The
palate is long and the softpalate (<<dula'*>) is extensible
and
is often
the mouth,
the
five.to
male. The tongue is small but
mobile and
seven papillae of
each side.
that of the
that
the
jaw and both
and
jaws
have canine teeth(cctushes,,). The
to those of
The camelids have only
the
3). They
the
anatomy in that
is no
the
and
4). Although it is
conventional to
to the
of the camel
stomach
by
the
same
as
used
it is not
that the
analogous functions
Camels have
Options
-
The
is
by a
of the
of
of the
by folds of mucosa. The mucosa
epithelium which has up to 100
- n.O 2 - 1989: 171-179
Serie A: Seminaires mediterraneens
CIHEAM - Options Mediterraneennes
found in the
and the omasum. These glands
act as
and
of
of enzymes. The stomach of
does
not have analogous mucosa.The
the same functions as in the
and its contents
of total body
equivalent to 11 to 15
weight.
tylopods the
into the
it joins the stomach between the
and the
The
honeycomb-like
while that of tylopods is of
3 and 4),
As
noted
no
and abomasum
in the tylopods and it has been suggested that it would be
to
the
and a
stomach,being the whole of the
(von
&
1984). The
of the
stomach
than one fifth of it in the llama: this
does not
contain any
in the foetus.
on
The motility of the camelid stomach
the llama)
that of
The
mean
time of digesta is
in camels than in
that this
zebu
by about 20
could be due to the
the camel
stomach and the
& STEVENS, 1971).
thellama, the cycle of
motility is followed by
the
second
this being subsequently followed by a
sound
The
of the
of
in
then a
and
the
of each cycle is just
1.5 minutes but this is
of the secod
the
of
but
the speed of cycling. The
in food
the
an
and fluid is squeezed out of the
into the
sac
the
along the
Intestines
at the
The small intestine is about 40 m. in length in a full
common duct
the
and the
into the looped duodenum. The
jejunum is
and occupies most of the abdomen.
is a chain of
lymph nodes along the jejunum. The
** lymph nodes of the ileum
associated with those of the
intestine.
but
it
that
and they
& VAN
the
of
of about 10
minute,
back.
is about 20 m. inlenghtin
the
and hasa
blind caecum attached to the
The colon is of
about 4 mof
its lenght and is situated on the left side of the abdomen in
a
The site of much
is
the
The lymph supply of the
intestine is
at the
and
the
the colon becomes the
The contents of the
canal pass
the
to the
stomach when the
of the
second
leads to an expansion of the canal. The
mode of
to be
to that of
the flow
has been estimated at 850
about 17 ml. at each
(VON ENGEL&
1979).
of fluids
totals about 15.3
in the
than 20 mm. in lengthit is about 29.3
of
the onehumped
be
up to 40
of the food bolus takes place
at maximum
of the
of
and can
Liver, pancreas andspleen
to
of cattle on a
The
lobulated with
The bile duct is common
with the
duct as it
the duodenum. The
spleen is not attached to the
but high to the left
side of
The
is
to that of cattle.
the
basis.
of
The
no
Nutritional physiology
in
fatty acid and ketone metabolism between the Camelidae
and the
The
of volatile fatty
acids in the
1972) whichwouldindicate no
metabolic
to that
in the
and
to
stomach
do not influence the
noted, fluid and
and
that the
and
about 75
in both sheepand camels when fully
68.4
83.8
and
account
the
of
camels,thesespeciesbeingtotallyabsent,
and
mainly by Diplodinium, in sheep.
those in sheep with
of all
but
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Serie A: Seminaires mediterraneens
CIHEAM - Options Mediterraneennes
of fatty acids, sadium and
two to
the
of the camel
than in the goat and sheep and
back
solutes
and
About 60
cent of the
sodium, 70
of fatty acids and 30
cent of
in
in the
hind stomach
of
Camels
one feeding station to the next and they
thus able to exploit a wide
of plants and of plant
can be
on
but
species that have
be
as much as 15
shown that total
intake needs to be about
'gent of body- weight. A
weighing 650
would thus
than 25
between 80 and 100
of total food
it
intake of
would
thatcamels can achievetheseamounts of
not
do too much
walking to and
the
The imposition of
the amount of time available
feeding and thus total
is not continuous, by eating in
excess of
immediate needs and
the
fat
in the hump.
well adapted to low
with
total
efficient
on
model is
diets (although
them to ingest
content than the feed
cycling mechanisms. The
5. The
in a
with
1959).
camels has beenshown to
47 to 86
cent
in'animals in
13.6
llamas on
low
to 6.1.
can be ashigh as95
cent. llamas fed
of the
78
cent of the
the
when total
in the diet was low but this
to
10
cent, with adequate
in the diet. The
of
the blood does not
affect
the amount of
to the
canaland it
is obvious that
of the stomach lining to
changes with the type of diet fed.
is
of the
the VFA
in the
and the
the
and
acid having
than
acid.
Camels have a
of
which they
to obtain
but
is not a
of the diet the animals usually
have to be taken, at
of the
to a
of
Table 2 indicates,
an
of
how camels
a
the
than
can
in camels
an imbalance in
the
known
as
due to this imbalance is well known in
&
1958).
the Camelidae
efficient in
than
to be significantly
and
and domestic
&
1973) and thisis
ad
of the stomach
Water
is the subject of mythandlegend
Not the
contents.
of the camels,contain,
any
at
of
and
adaptations.
efficiency in
The food of camels
is,
to the use they
allowed to make of these adaptations and the imposition of
The
food of Old
of
of
and
and many being salt bush plants of the family Chenopodiaceae
of the
and
take as much as 90
is
the
in
body
by as much
cent of
7"
the
day.
This
the
need
to
shed the
than that taken by goats
plants.
heat load by sweating
panting and the excess heat is
of
dissipated in the
without loss of
not
habits is that they
this
and
go
domestic stock
of the type of feed eaten in
the
commonly
quoted
to
but
the height at whichthey eat above the
Feeds
on occasions
6), especially when
selected by camels
usually high in
content
eaten.
and oxalates.Acacias, Balanites,Salsola and
Tamarix
constituents of the
diet
of
to body size
found. Table 1 lists some of the and
do not
and
amounting to 30
details of
and
of the initial body weight, as much as 90.1 of
can be
open
to move
due to the
-
The
173 -
Serie A: Seminaires mediterraneens
CIHEAM - Options Mediterraneennes
Energy and protein requirements
for productivity
cent
and 10 to 15
on
and can be made
on feeding
the
has so
on
on
suggested
of
stood the test of time and it can
done, they
age but
to have
that, until
can be
the
and that camels feeding
as much as 1.5
in 60 days.
is needed to
if
but it
advantage of the camelis
in
fed to
advanced
in this context.
a
Work
those
and animal's body functioning in a stable
animals maintenance can also be
in
to keep
to include 'the
The
Table 3 should be
sex, age and function classes.
Milk production
The
high in
of
The
one
of milk is equivalent to
almost 10 cent of the maintenance
of
is even
demanding of
and
one
about 20
cent of the maintenance
of a 400
Table
indication of the
and
of such a
15
of milk couldnot
be
and
feed
of 40
yields
to
would be
be believed, it would be of
to have a
of the feed intake of these animals.
Meat production
15 to 20
that camels fatten
fed
of
beet pulp silage, molasses
Camels
animals in
output is in the
to beat least as efficient
but
of
is the main
any
of
and thisneeds to be
an output of 455 watts
is
to
at an efficiency of 20
and
cent, the
equivalent to 8,2
The
to be supplied in foodusing
to assume that
is shown in table 5. Although it is
pack animals
amounts of
on suppleoutput, no data
an excessof
while milking camels usually deficientin
supply.
to
Camels in
at a time and it is possible
this isdue toa lackof
by
the fact that
it is only
that
Some examples of
of situations
be
this table is that
of camels
in
output on
decades
&
on
with
of
and
necessity.
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Serie A: Seminaires mediterraneens
in a
in table 6. The lesson to
knowledge of waht the
and has
This is in spite of the
camels in the last two
1987).
an
CIHEAM - Options Mediterraneennes
Table 1
OF
T
T
Composition per cent
Family and species
matter
Crude
protein
Crude
fibre
21-3
13-9
14-6
63-3
8-9
18-6
20-7
17-4
47-7
16-7
57-6
Asclepiadaceae:
Leptadenia hastata
Fat
-
Nitrogenree extrac
Ash
-
g Per
Vet energy
per
Nutritive
ratio
15-6
97
6-7
14-48
50-1
16-1
51
6-0
8-50
2-7
45-4
13-9
151
5-6
26-96
20-9
2-9
50-3
9-6
105
5-6
18-75
16-7
16-8
16-5
24-9
22-7
18-3
4-6
3-1
2-6
50-8
48-2
54-9
6-2
6-8
6-4
89
121
120
5-5
5-8
6-1
16-18
20-86
19-67
13-6
13-4
3-8
60-4
8-5
91
7-0
13-0
30-1
13-4
12-2
2-5
44-2
29-1
91
4-8
18-96
51-1
12-3
14-6
4-7
51-3
13-4
84
6-1
13-77
81-7
.3-l
39-8
Coidia
Boscia spp., Cadaba ssp.
Capparis spp.,
Crataeva Spp.,
spp
(leaves and
Combretum micranthum
(leaves and twigs)
Guiera senegalemis(twigs,
Leguminosae:
Acacia raddiana (pods)
(Ziziphus spp.)
Salvadora persica(twigs,
leaves,
8 1-3
7-7
1980.
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Serie A: Seminaires mediterraneens
2-8
CIHEAM - Options Mediterraneennes
Table 2
.
~~~
~~
Type of grazing and mainspecies
climatic conditions
Period
humid
Tephrosiapobstachia Blepharis edulis
Wet-hot humid
Tribulus terrestris. Tephrosia polystachya, Trianthema pentandrc Convolvulusfatmensis, Blepharis edulis
salt cure
end-July/mid-August
end-Oct/mid-Nov
acheb mainly Shouwia thebaica.
mainly Cornulaca monocantha.
Cool
late
acheb in
late
Salt cure
wadi beds.
Table 3
Table 4
OF
OF 400
Protein Energy
requirements
Function and animal
class and weight
500
400
300
at
1
1
Energy
Protein
g
54
45
300
260
36
210
5
50
camel
milk
500
animal
1
maintenance
milk
5
50
maintenance plus peak
yield of 15
90
1,010
Annual
one
maintenance plus
lactation yield of 1500
23,925
annual
8-2
female assuming50
cent
none
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Serie A: Seminaires mediterraneens
20,175
1
1
169,900
132,400
i
CIHEAM - Options Mediterraneennes
Table 5
OF 500
Energy
54
8.2
1
camel
and 10
Protein
g
300
maintenance
Annual
one camel
maintenance and
8
in 250 days
of
136
300
36.110
109.500
22.662
109.500
one camel
maintenance and
60 days of the
Source:
Table 6
ON
TYPE
OF
6.8
320
1.8
Cotton seed
2.3
2.3
2.7
2.3
0.9
4.5
11.3
11.3
5.0
9.1
10.0
g/day
Sources: 1.
2.
1927.
50.7
469
59.0
1440
3.
4.
27.4
448
54.4
990
1938.
and
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Serie A: Seminaires mediterraneens
58.2
1512
5.
6.
39.7
440
1927.
1975.
CIHEAM - Options Mediterraneennes
oesophagus
I
recticulum
I
duodenum
rumen
I
anterior
glandular
sac
posterior
glandular
sac
1. L'estomac
oesophagus
II
2.
(b).
- 178 -
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CIHEAM - Options Mediterraneennes
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Serie A: Seminaires mediterraneens
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