Camels: A Source of Transmitting Parasites

Camels are ancient animals and are considered as significant multipurpose animals of arid as well as semi-arid parts of the world, particularly in Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, they are the main domestic animal which is also used for carriage purposes. Furthermore, these animals are superior source of milk as well as meat. In addition, they are employed for sport racing as well. They have been domesticated for transportation, clothing, meat as well as milk for more than 4000 year’s ago¹.

Camels can live and produce in needy farms as well as they can be compared with high-yield animals of the same weight including cattle, in productivity under manual feeding. Therefore, there is a requirement to enhance management of camels in the semiarid as well as arid regions where livestock production is becoming harder because of climate changes².

Parasitism is a potential threat to camels that affects the productivity of camels. Parasites cause parasitic diseases which lower the working efficiency of camels or even may result in death of animals. It is reported that parasitic diseases also cause serious health hazards in humans.

These Intestinal Parasites, protozoa and helminths are one of the main reasons of impaired milk as well as production and affect fertility badly by lowering calving rates of camels³.

Considering these facts, scientists carried out a novel study to investigate the occurrence rates as well as type of camel intestinal parasites in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. For this purpose, scientists selected 240 animals and examined their feces by means of coprological methods⁴.

During this study, out of 240 analyzed samples of feces, 143 cases were found to be positive for intestinal parasites of whom eighty two were male and sixty one were female. However, the single infection was the maximum and concurrent infections were with two and three or more. Moreover, research team noticed that intestinal parasites, detected in camels feces belong to nematode which includes; Haemonchus spp., Trichostrongylus spp., Nematodirus spp., Trichuris spp., Osrtertagia spp. as well as cestoda: Moniezia expansa, Stilesia spp. coccidia: Eimeria cameli.

In this research, the high prevalence of intestinal parasites among camels was reported during summer season. Conclusively, this study explains that camels are infected with an incidence of parasites in Saudi Arabia.

In a nutshell, camels play an imperative role in maintaining and transmitting parasites diseases in dry regions of Saudi Arabia. Parasitism is one of the major health problems of camels; it is the need of the hour to give special attention to this issue in order to protect the health of camels.

REFERENCES

1. Wilson, R.T., 1984. The Camel. Longman Group Ltd., London, UK.
2. Sazmand, A., 2011. Prevalence of cryptosporidiosis in camel and camel handlers in Yazd province. Ph.D. Thesis, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran.
3. Anwar, A.H. and M.N. Khan, 1998. Parasitic fauna of Camel in Pakistan. Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Meeting for Animal Production Under Arid Conditions, May 2-3, 1998, United Arab Emirates University, pp: 69-76.
4. Al-Megrin, W.A.I., 2015. Prevalence rate of intestinal parasites in camels in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Int. J. Zool. Res., 11: 65-70.