Camelot in the desert

This fascinating story dates back many years, but a definitive chapter opened on January 14, 1998, when Rama, the world’s first cama was born in Dubai. The hybrid between a male dromedary camel and a female llama, Rama, was produced via artificial insemination at Dubai’s Camel Reproduction Centre (CRC), and weighed 5.5 kilograms.

The CRC had aimed to create an animal with the size and strength of a camel, but with the more cooperative temperament and the higher wool production of a llama, and, they were not only successful, but notched a global first with it. A second cama, a female named Kamilah was born later, followed by Jamilah, Rocky, Ricky and Zaki in subsequent years.

Dr Julian (Lulu) Skidmore, the centre’s Scientific Director, says her team has conducted more than 50 trials to cross llama eggs with camel sperm, resulting in 15 conceptions — six of which have led to live births. “No one had done this before. It was fascinating to see whether crossing camels and llamas would actually work, and when they did conceive, it was an exciting wait to see what the hybrid would look like, and how it would behave,” she says.

In her 20 years at the centre, and of all the achievements the CRC has added to its portfolio since this feat, Dr Skidmore’s personal favourite remains Rama’s birth. “My single most rewarding moment was when the first hybrid was born. We had done a lot of work to get the first live calf on the ground. We had a few disappointments with resorptions and stillbirths, so when the first cama was born and stood up to look at the world, it was simply wonderful.”

In February 2008, the CRC developed micro-manipulation skills to bisect embryos in half and produce identical twins, resulting in the world’s first pair of identical camel twins — Zahi and Bahi.
Exactly year later, the CRC scientists created Injaz — the world’s first cloned camel — with a breakthrough development to ensure preservation of valuable genetics of elite racing and milk-production. Research for this project had begun years earlier, when Dr Nisar Wani, Head of CRC’s Cell Biology and Development department and his team developed the technique to produce a reconstructed embryo — an embryo carrying the DNA of a single donor animal. Injaz was the cloned using DNA extracted from cells in the ovaries of a camel that was slaughtered for its meat in 2005.

But this success story was to gain more steam in months. In 2010, CRC announced the birth of the world’s second cloned camel. Bin Soughan was born in February after an uncomplicated gestation of 383 days — but this cloning came with a significant difference. He was cloned from cells harvested from the skin of an elite bull, the first time in the world that a camel was reproduced from the cells of a living animal.

Another five cloned camels were born last year. Dr Wani now hopes to clone other animals in the Arabian Gulf that are facing extinction, by using the same technique for preservation. Earlier this year, in July, the centre announced the perfection of an embryo transfer technique which allows female camels to have multiple offspring every year, as opposed to a single calf born every two to three years. Dr Skidmore explains, “Twenty years ago almost nothing was known about the camel’s reproductive system. We would be very pleased and proud if the technology we helped to develop in camels here in the UAE helped save an endangered species elsewhere in the world.”
While all these developments at the CRC signal unrivalled success for Dubai, it has much larger and broader international dimensions. Camels are amazing animals that are well adapted to desert conditions and provide more milk, meat and transport per kilogram of food intake than any other animal subjected to the same dry, arid conditions. Camel milk is becoming increasingly popular due to its good nutritional value and health benefits, and is very important in sustaining people in developing countries.

“At the CRC we have developed techniques for embryo transfer of fresh or chilled embryos so that good milk or meat-producing camels can be used as embryo donors and the lesser ones as recipients. This means that at the end of a season, there would be more calves with desirable genetics, and therefore, able to produce more milk or meat. We are continuing projects to improve pregnancy rates with frozen or thawed embryos so that these desirable genes can be spread further afield and even worldwide,” says Dr Skidmore.

While the fantastic concept of ‘Camelot’ has been bandied about over the ages, the Kennedy-era definition pegged it at as ‘a term with potential and promise for the future.’ The CRC certainly earns the title of a ‘Camelot in the Desert’ in more ways than one.
Dr Skidmore, whose PhD thesis was on reproduction in the dromedary camel, has been the Scientific Director since 1994, and under her mantle, the work of the centre has spread beyond Dubai, with training and collaborative projects in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and the US. For example, in Iran, Dr Skidmore has collaborated with Tehran University to help save their Bactrian camel from extinction. In Africa, she has consulted on the feasibility of an artificial insemination programme in dromedary camels. In Bulgaria she has consulted on male camel fertility problems, and in the US, she has lent her expertise to freezing llama embryos.

Various projects have been set up with the Emirates Industry for Camel Milk and Products in carrying out embryo transfers, to improve overall milk output. The centre also collaborates with Ireland’s University College Dublin, in investigating the maternal recognition of pregnancy signals in camels.

Besides the fame that it brings to Dubai, the study of camels and success with its genetic programming is of significant consequence for the future. “The camel is a unique animal adapted especially for desert environments. With the threat of global warming, this could well become ‘The Age of the Camel’. The camel would be able to provide more milk and meat than any cow or goat ever would, in India, Africa, Pakistan... and could be a great solution to world hunger,” says Dr Skidmore.

The Camel Reproduction Centre was established in 1989 by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to develop modern techniques of embryo transfer and artificial insemination for racing camels. The centre is situated in the desert, 40 kilometres from Dubai city, and currently houses 220 camels, including all the stars. School visits can be organised by prior arrangement.