Experiences of camel health management in Botswana

Abstract

In Botswana where camels were apparently brought by Cecil Rhodes from Egypt in 20th century and although a few still remain with the police at Tsabong the majority were sold or given away at the turn of the 21st Century with the expectation of using them for eco-tourism. Currently, a total of 134 camels are held by Botswana Tourism Association which contracted Kenya camel Association to work out a management and health programme for the camels in 2010. Early in 2011, the camels were evaluated on health and well being. A few Botswana people were also trained on camel management. The experiences reveal that camels can be exploited for commercial purposes that include tourism which can raise income of the population is a lesson that can be spread through out the region. People who had never tasted camel milk were increasing in number and by now about 50 people regularly take camel milk. One camel was castrated for demonstration purposes. The main health problems encountered included fractured limbs, skin wounds and eye infections. There were relatively few ticks considering that the camels were living in the wild probably because of living outside the tropics. The camel potential in Botswana is high if all production and marketing factors can are considered