Journal of Camel Practice and Research December 2011 / 209 JOURNAL OF CAMEL PRACTICE AND RESEARCH SEND REPRINT REQUEST TO KHALID A. ABDOUN email: abdounn@yahoo.com kabdoun@ksu.edu.sa Vol 18 No 2, p 209-212 ASSESSMENT OF NUTRITIONAL STATUS IN FEED DEPRIVED ONE-HUMPED CAMELS K Abdoun 1 , A Alameen 2 , W Elmagbol 2 , T Makkawi 2 and A Al-Haidary 1 1 Department of Animal Production, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, PO Box 2460; Riyadh 11451, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 2 Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Khartoum, 13314 Shambat, Sudan ABSTRACT Camels are known to survive and reproduce in arid and semiarid areas despite the scarcity of feed and water. It was the intention of this study to assess energy and nitrogen balances of feed deprived dromedary camels using specifc blood metabolites concentrations as biological markers. In this study 5 camels of different age and sex were totally deprived of feed for 7 days. Feed deprivation caused no change in plasma glucose, and serum triglycerides and b-hydroxybutyrate concentrations, indicating that energy defcit did not occur. The serum albumin concentration remained stable during feed deprivation, while urea concentration increased. This clearly indicates the ability of camels to use effcient recycling of urea to maintain their nitrogen balance. Our results also show that dromedary camels maintained their serum osmolality during feed deprivation. However, packed cell volume (PCV), haemoglobin concentration (Hb), forestomach liquor Na + and K + concentrations and osmolality were slightly reduced. Key words: Dromedary camel, energy balance, feed deprivation, nitrogen balance Camels suffer the least during successive years of drought which occur from time to time in the dry belts of the tropics and cause ecological catastrophes for livestock and human population that depend on them. Further, camels are known to travel long distances (5-7 days) with little or no food and water. We hypothesised that dromedary camel might tolerate moderate fasting without serious alteration in its nutritional status. The capability of dromedary camels to tolerate lack of food is related to unique adaptive mechanisms including the mobilisation of lipids during malnutrition and the storage of fat during favourable periods (Tarik et al, 1994; Diallo, 2000; Dereje and Udén, 2005). In dehydrated dromedaries, liver lipids were reported to decrease from 13 to 2.5%, however, concentrations of triglycerides and fatty acids remain unchanged (Mahmud et al, 1984). Moreover, it has been reported that ketogenesis is weak in the dromedary and that plasma concentrations of b-hydroxybutyrate and acetoacetate were 33 and 4 fold lower compared to sheep (Chilliard et al, 2000). Compared to ruminants, the dromedary is characterised by a norm higher plasma glucose concentration of about 5 mmol/L, a value similar to that of monogastric species (Cebra et al, 2001). This is due to the fact that dromedary has a high gluconeogenesis and a very low insulin (Souilem et al, 1999). Camelids can recycle up to 90% of blood urea nitrogen, in contrast to 10-30% reported in ruminants (Von Engelhardt et al, 1978). The nitrogen recycling in camelids has been reported to increase in the case of lower protein diet and/or dehydration (Gihad et al, 1989l; Souilem and Djegham, 1994; Gallacher and Hill, 2006). The concentration of blood metabolites are sensitive to changes in nutrient supply, and could be used as indicators of nutritional status (Pambu-Gollah et al, 2000). Therefore, it was the intention of this study to use these indices as biomarkers for assessing the nutritional status, namely, energy, protein and minerals status of dromedary camels fasted for one week. Materials and Methods Animals and samples collection This study was carried out on five one- humped camels of different age and sex. Camels were subjected to experimental feed deprivation for one week with free access to water. Blood and forestomach liqour samples were collected prior to feed deprivation (day zero) and after one week of feed deprivation (fasting). Blood samples were collected using jugular vein puncture, while the forestomach