The main challenges facing camel reproduction research in the 21st century.

Abstract

The reproductive efficiency of camels under their natural pastoral conditions is low. The reasons for this low reproductive efficiency include the short breeding season, the late age of reaching puberty and the long gestation period of 13 months. The introduction of controlled breeding programmes is important but several problems have to be considered. For example, oestrous behaviour is very vague and difficult to interpret, as it does not often relate to follicular development in the ovaries. In addition, all camelids are induced ovulators that normally ovulate only in response to mating, so alternative methods of inducing ovulation, such as injecting gonadotrophic hormones, have been investigated. The use of embryo transfer is becoming increasingly important but involves the necessity to superovulate the donors and synchronize the recipients so that they ovulate preferably 24 h after the donor. Superovulation can be achieved using exogenous gonadotrophins, although there is a high incidence of follicle luteinization before mating, of overstimulated ovaries and non-responsive females. The development of AI in camels is complicated by the difficulty of collecting semen and the gelatinous nature of the semen produced. However, diluting semen in Green Buffer and inseminating a minimum of 300 x 10(6) live spermatozoa has given encouraging results. The ability to control the follicular cycle of camels is leading to an improvement in reproductive efficiency.