Abu Dhabi: The Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA) is stepping up its efforts to develop camel livestock and reinforce its status as an authentic cultural heritage, along with strengthening its economic position within the food security system, in honor of World Camel Day, which falls on June 22nd each year.
This is accomplished through offering top-notch veterinary care, educating people about the value of camel health, breeding, and production, and taking part in global initiatives to support the expansion and sustainability of the key industry. With 99,071 camels in Abu Dhabi (83,879 females and 15,192 males), 254,034 in Al Ain (215,968 females and 38,066 males), and 122,977 in Al Dhafra Region (104,987 females and 17,990 males), the total camel population in the Abu Dhabi emirate is 476,082.
The celebration of this year takes place in conjunction with the United Nations’ 2024 International Year of Camelids, an initiative designed to draw attention to the importance of camels to more than 90 nations economically and culturally. It also highlights how crucial a role they play in improving food security by supplying milk, meat, and fiber. In certain communities, they also serve as a means of transportation for goods and people, which helps communities achieve sustainable development goals like ending hunger, poverty, empowering women, and safeguarding and maintaining ecosystems.
ADAFSA offers full-spectrum camel care, including vaccinations and medication, disease and pest control, and productive, curative, and preventive veterinary services. 130,700 camels received 185,797 veterinary services in the last year, including various forms of care, check-ups, and examinations. In addition, 237,487 camels received camel spraying services from the authority in the previous year 2023 to help fight external parasites.
Since 2009, ADAFSA has provided preventive and curative veterinary care as well as laboratory testing for camels that are part of the Al Dhafra Camel Mazayna (beauty competitions) Festival.
The authority also performs regular fertility checks, ear-tagging and logging in the animal identity and registration system, as well as routine spraying to battle external parasites, and offers veterinary health certificates for camels destined for export to various nations.
The organization has created a number of pamphlets with recommendations on best practices for camel breeding and care in an effort to increase public knowledge of the significance of camel care.
ADAFSA collaborates with UAE institutions to gather samples for a study on coronaviruses in camels, one of the combined efforts between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and ADAFSA to preserve camel health internationally.
The center has offered laboratory analysis services for over 100,000 samples in the last two years, for a total of over 500,000 analyses for different diseases taken from camels.
In addition, the center has created the first biobank of reference materials for the preservation of camel tissue culture cells and biological isolates.