Assessment of body condition and body composition in camel by barymetric measurements

The present study aimed to assess the live weight, carcass weight and the importance of fat storage in camel by barymetric measurement before and after slaughtering. A total of 61 camels aged between 6 months and 15 years were measured at the abattoir of Dakhla in south of Morocco. The barymetric measures were achieved before slaughtering. After the death of the animals, the hump volume was estimated by using Archimedes' principle. The hump length and the height were good indicators of the carcass weight (r= 0.73 and r = 0.78, respectively) and of the live weight (r = 0.54 and r = 0.53, respectively). Neck perimeter and thigh perimeter were good predictors of the carcass weight. The live weight and carcass weight could be assessed by the following equations: (i) Carcass weight (kg) = 1.21 x (Hump height (cm) + neck perimeter (cm) - 17.49; (ii) Live weight (kg) = 4.06 x Age (year) + 3.05 x neck perimeter (cm) + 3.38 x thigh perimeter (cm) + 1.38 x hump length (cm) - 191; with 86 and 94% of the explained variance, respectively. Hump volume, length and height of the hump were good indicators of the adiposity of camel (correlations coefficient of 0.80, 0.70 and 0.60, respectively with the total fat storage. The hump represented 80% of the fat stored while the fat around kidney and mesentery represented 15 and 5%, respectively. The multivariate analysis allowed identifying three types of body condition (live measures) and body composition (post-mortem measures). (Résumé d'auteur