Abstract
BackgroundDromedary camels could be a successful and economic meat provider in poor greenery lands where feeds and water are scarcely available. Moreover, camels need lower amounts of protein in their rations than other ruminants, since they have an exceptional ability to recycle urea as a source of nitrogen when dietary protein is unavailable. The present preliminary study aimed to detect influence of feeding all roughage ration on growth performance of growing camels in comparison with cow calves and their response to the abrupt change into 50% roughage ration fed in the fed-lot condition.ResultsThe results illustrated that with feeding 100% R ration camels could utilize available nutrients better than calves, and although the maintenance level of CP was not met for both species, camels exert higher resistance in losing weight than calves (− 93.7 vs. − 160.7 g/d). Shifting camels and calves on 50% R ration showed nearly similar nutritive values and comparable daily weight gain (942.75 g for camels and 968.50 g for calves). Feed conversion efficiency as Mcal ME and g DCP/kg gain was, respectively, 18.39 and 527 for camels and 18.42 and 555 for calves. Blood serum biochemical constituents were improved with 50% R than 100% R ration particularly for calves. Blood protein of camels was not influenced by changing ration. Urea concentration was higher in camel’s blood than calves with either 100% or 50% R rations. Camels clearly had lower contents of cholesterol and triglycerides than calves under the two feeding regimes.ConclusionThe results revealed that growing camels could utilize the 100% R ration of very low protein content more efficiently than cow calves and had similar growth rate as that of calves with the 50% R ration.
Highlights
Dromedary camels could be a successful and economic meat provider in poor greenery lands where feeds and water are scarcely available
Analytical methods Chemical composition of feeds and feces for moisture, organic matter, crude protein, crude fiber, ether extract and ash were determined according to AOAC (2016), while nitrogen-free extract content was calculated by difference
Chemical composition of different feedstuffs and the two experimental rations are presented in Tables 1 and 2
Summary
Dromedary camels could be a successful and economic meat provider in poor greenery lands where feeds and water are scarcely available. Some previous studies (El-Badawi and Yacout 1999; Yacout and El-Badawi 2001; El-Badawi and Yacout 2004) recorded average daily weight gain (ADG) between 810 to 840 g for Sudanese camel calves (2–3 years old) fed on rations contained 12 to 14% crude protein. They noted that the ADG of camels was comparable to that of local cattle calves; the daily DM intake of camels was 1.44% of their body weight vs 2.5% for cattle calves. The previous background might indicate that raising camels on intensive feeding system could be an economic solution to help in providing red meat with reasonable prices for poor and developing countries
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