Saudi camel owners get deadline for e-registration of animals

Cairo: Saudi authorities have announced a five-month grace period for camel owners to electronically register their animals for free as the camel sector is flourishing in the country.

The kingdom’s Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture has urged the camel owners to register and tag their animals for free until May on the Naama platform to preserve their rights, get access to services and help set up a date base facilitating ownership transfer.

The registration also seeks to keep track of the numbers of camels, species and geographical distribution, back up animal husbandry plans and curb stray camels blamed for road accidents.

In 2022, Saudi Arabia started a project for documenting strains of camels, using DNA tests to preserve rare species of the animal. Registration entails different data on camels including the DNA.

The Saudi Camel Club, which oversees the project, said each applicant among camel owners gets an ID card for the camel containing all related data.

Documenting camels aims to preserve famous and rare species of camels by setting up a DNA-based data base, the club added at the time.