Abstract
Centuries of cohabitation between the two species of large camelids (dromedary and Bactrian) in Kazakhstan with a long practice of crossbreeding make it necessary to establish a national camel milk breed standard. To obtain data on purebred herds, the present study aimed to (i) describe the morphometric differences between the two species of large camelids based on some body and udder measurements, (ii) describe the composition of the milk (fat, proteins, minerals) of each species and determine the most discriminating parameters, (iii) verify the possible links between milk productivity and body measurements. The analyses, carried out on two “purebred” farms (respectively, 21 Aruana dromedary and 15 Bactrian camel of different parities but all sampled at the 5th month of lactation), made it possible to observe significant difference in the concentration of certain milk components (fat, respectively, 3.59 ± 1.22 vs. 5.27 ± 0.87%, protein: 3.18 ± 0.28 vs. 3.97 ± 0.29%, magnesium: 1357.07 ± 246.2 vs. 929.40 ± 166.8 µg/mL, manganese: 0.10 ± 0.05 vs. 0.03 ± 0.01 µg/mL). The combination of parameters (protein, Ca, Mg, Zn, Mn) made it possible to distinguish 97.6% of the animals. It was also possible to establish the lack of correlations between body measurements and milk production, except the link with heart girth (r = 0.529; p = 0.014) in dromedary only. By automatic classification, 3 different morphological types in dromedary camels and two in Bactrian camels, as well as two profiles of dromedary milk and 3 of Bactrian milk were identified. The present study provided preliminary results which should be validated on a larger number of farms with purebred animals in order to establish a national standard of camel milk, a necessary step for developing the market.