Morphometric characterization and estimating body weight of two Algerian camel breeds using morphometric measurements

Abstract

This study was carried out in order to identify the body measurements of two different Dromedary camel breeds raised in Algeria. The animal material of the study consisted of a total of 115 animals belong to Steppe (n = 55) and Sahraoui (n = 60) camel breeds. Eye and coat colors along with body measurements such as head length, neck length, neck girth, tail length, distance between eyes, distance between ears, body length, withers height, chest girth, and live weight were determined. Least squares means for head length, neck length, neck girth, tail length, distance between eyes, distance between ears, body length, withers height, chest girth, and live weight are found 48.2, 116.9, 65.7, 55.6, 24.1, 22.5, 152.2, 184.5, 141.2 cm, and 217.2 kg for Steppe and 48.1, 101.2, 56.2, 51.2, 23.4, 18.3, 135.6, 167.3, 176.8 cm, and 298.9 kg for Sahraoui camel breeds, respectively. The distribution of brown and black eye colors for the Steppe camel breed is as 58.2% and 41.8%, respectively, while all of the Sahraoui camels studied had a brown eye color. The proportional distribution in terms of body color included are coffee, dark coffee, and red colors for 1.8%, 83.6%, and 14.6% in the Steppe camel and 98.3%, 1.7%, and 0.0% for the Sahraoui camel, respectively. As a result, this study concluded that the withers height and chest girth could estimate the body weight in the two breeds of camels with different ages.

Keywords: Algeria; Body measurements; Camel population Sahraoui; Camel population of the Steppe; Morphological characterization.