Socio-economic characteristics of camel – keepers and some common major ailments of camels in semi-arid Northern Nigeria Keywords (Camelus dromedarius

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the socio-economic background of camel keepers and some common major ailments of camels (camelus dromedarius) in semi-arid Northern Nigeria. A structured questionnaires was administered to fifty camel farmers each atMashi, Maigatari andGeidam in Katsina, Jigawa and Yobe States, respectively. Data obtained from the survey were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The result shows that camel keepers in the study area were aged between 31 and 50years (51.7%), literate (85.0%) and had over 20 years of experience (53.7%). A total of 3,848 camels were kept by the respondents in 120mixherds and had annual mortality rate of less than 6.0 %. Major ailments recorded by the respondents were skin diseases (54%) while dermatophilosis, cutaneous ulcers and camel pox had occurrence rate of 20.0%, 8.3% and 8.3%, respectively. It was concluded that camel keepers were well informed and experienced in husbandry and experienced in husbandry and commonest cause of camel slaughter was skin disease which was severe during wet season.