INTRODUCTION The one-humped camel (Camelus dromedarius) is ...

INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
The one-humped camel (Camelus dromedarius) is one of two
species within the genus Camelus, the other being the Bactrian or twohumped
camel (C. bactrianus). Scientific name is Camelus dromedarius,
and common name is Arabian camel; camel; dromedaries; dromedary or
one-humped camel. Arabian camels have been domesticated for
approximately 3500 years and have been long valued as pack animals.
The term "dromedary" is derived from the dromos (Greek for "road") and
thus is directly applicable only to the racing or riding dromedary.
However, the term is used throughout the world to describe this species.
Dromedaries were first associated with nomadic Semitic cultures and did
not become important until the rise of the Arabian culture. They became
important domestic animals only with the Moslem conquests of Egypt in
the 7 th to 11 th centuries A.D .
The one-humped camel is widely distributed in the Horn of Africa,
North African countries, the Arab peninsula and some countries of Asia
(AL-Tarazi, 2001).
In Egypt camels are not only provide meat, wool, milk for many
people in desert areas but also an indispensable means of transport in
these areas .They are better adapted to the ecological condition than
cattle, sheep or goats, they cause little damage to the environment even
when slightly overstocked (Marx and Abdi,1983).
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Camel’s meat is considered as one of the important animal protein
in Egypt so to face the increased requirement of meat, large numbers of
camels are imported every year from the Sudan for slaughtering in Egypt.
Lung infections, especially pneumonia, are major diseases of
domestic animals. Outbreaks occur in camel, cattle, buffaloes and small
ruminants in various countries (Costa et al. 1998, Schwartz et al. 1992,
Selman et al. 1983). Only few studies were found in the available
literature on pathological and bacteriological affections of pneumonic
lungs in camels. Most of the studies on camels were about parasitic
infections (AL-Rawashdeh et al. 1999, Blood et al. 1990, Musa et al.
1989).
On the second axis, hepatic affections of bacterial origin were
common in animals and hepatitis was the major type of affections (Jubb
et al. 1993). However, the relation between lung and liver lesions were
did not previously studied in camels. Therefore, we concluded the aim of
this work to study the etiology (bacterial causes ) and histopathological
findings of lung lesions in native and imported camels slaughtered in
Egyptian abattoirs as well as to study the hepatic lesions associated with
progressive lung lesions in the same camel in order to understanding the
development of Hepatopulmonary syndrome.
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