Postnatal growth and development pattern of camel calves

Abstract

Thirty-two Bactrian camel calves kept under traditional management conditions were used to study postnatal growth and development patterns. Thirteen linear body measurements were taken at the intervals of 30 days after birth up to day 420. The mean growth rates for height, heart girth, length, cannon circumference, chest depth, chest width, croup height, croup width, croup length, leg length, head length, head width and neck length were measured. The results showed that to a large extent the different body dimensions maintained a uniform pattern of maturity and their ranking for earliness of maturity tended to remain constant throughout the observation period. The fast growth rates occurred when the calf had access to an adequate maternal milk supply. The live weight growth pattern followed that of most mammalian species. However, fast growth occurred during the first seven months after birth and the daily weight gain was at its highest at the third month with an average of 0.782 ± 0.349 kg. A negative weight gain was observed between the 10th and 11th months with an average of -0.1677 ± 0.19 for the males and of -0.006 ± 0.24 kg when it was the breeding season for the dam and milk production decreased. The mean daily weight gain during the observation was 0.3846 ± 0.2895 kg/d. The maturity degree with regard to body weight and age was deduced from standardized growth curves.