World camel day was celebrated at Virtual University of Pakistan, Lahore in collaboration with Camel Association of Pakistan (CAP). It was under the umbrella of 3rd International Symposium in the row at VU, Lahore.
National Collaborators included were Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences (LUAWMS), Uthal, Balochistan, Pir Mehr Ali Shah, Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (PMAS, AAUR), University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF) and Pakistan Camel Club.
International collaboration was extended by ISO-CARD (International Society of Camelids Research and Development), Saudi Geological Society (SGS), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Camel 4life Interna-tional.
This meeting took place at Zoom and was attended by more than 300 participants in the Audi-torium and on Net-sharing.
Prof Dr Tanveer Hussain (HOD) was the focal person, present with his team lead by the Prof Dr Arshad Saleem Bhatti, Rector of the Virtual University of Pakistan, Lahore, who presided over this event of World Camel Day.
The speakers in the Second session after lunch were (i) Dr Pamela Burger, Res Institute of Wildlife Ecology, Vetmeduni, Vienna, Austria, (ii) Dr Zia ur Rehman, Dept of Physiology, IUB, Bahawalpur, (iii) Prof Dr Illahi Bakhsh Marghazani, Dept of Anim Nutrition, LUAWMS, Uthal, Balochistan and (iv) Prof Dr Ihtisham Khan, UVAS, Campus Jhang.
Inaugural Session was concluded by Prof Dr Anas Sarwar Qureshi, Pro Vice Chancellor UAF, and president of Camel Association of Pakistan (CAP). He addressed the importance of livestock production and the place of camel as an integral part of the livestock production in the country’s agriculture sector and economy. He said that there are about 35 million camels in the world, Pakistan possesses about 1.1 million heads being the eights (8th) among the top ten camel producer countries in the world, has an immense potential to generate huge revenues from this amazing species.
He emphasized on the need of collaborative research, training of pastoral farmers, organized marketing, establishment of camel health and production centers, selection and application of modern breeding techniques to utilize this indigenous genetic resource for coping with increasing food demand and future environmental crises.
He further said that camel is a multipurpose animal with lot many qualities making this creature as an amazing model species.
He said that milk of camel has lot of nutritional and medicinal values, meat quality in young calves is similar to that of cows, if fattened its quality can be further enhanced.
One of the challenges for camel scientists is the contribution in the improvement of the camel productivity.
