ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces camels as multipurpose animals. Their farming is now moving from traditional to commercial. Milk or meat products, which were gifted in the past, are now sold commercially with earning lot of revenue though there is still poor marketing structure. Although in the past, they were used for a variety of purposes, currently it is used for three main purposes namely, milking, fattening, and racing. Currently, their population is on the decline due to high calf mortality, longer gestation periods following longer calving intervals, traditional and improper camel farming, poor husbandry practices, and the emergence of diseases with minimal response measures. A lack of modern breeding techniques and poor management of the herds produced and their dairy, as well as other products, are few others that have their own standing in proper development of camel farming and allied aspects. Accordingly, there are a lot of research areas that need further exploration for camels’ proper development and promotion. Important among them are the etiology of camel calves, an exploration of its different rearing systems, immune-genetic studies, studies on its diversity and preservation, multi-omic studies, and studies on its welfare and social awareness need to be focused and explored.
