Effect of water restriction on milk yield and milk composition in camels (Camelus dromedarius)

This experiment was conducted to study the effect of water deprivation on daily milk yield and milk composition in she camels (Camelus dromedarius). Six lactating she camels of approximately equal daily milk yield were selected and divided randomly into three experimental groups of two each. The average daily water requirement and the average daily milk yield of the she camels were determined. During the experiment, each group received a different watering regime. Group 1 (G1) was allowed free access to water, group 2 (G2) was offered half the average daily water requirement (18 litters/head/day) while Group 3 (G3) was allowed to get the actual average daily camel's water requirement (36 litters/head/day) as a control group. The results elucidated that, the daily milk yield and composition were significantly (p<0.05) affected by the amount of water offered to the camels. Camels offered half the average daily water requirement (G2) produced higher (p<0.05) amount of milk (5.39 kg) than both G1 (4.98 kg) and G3 (5.27 kg). As for milk composition, the fat content of the milk produced by camels of G2 was found to be lower (p<0.05) (3%) than that of the milk produced by the other two groups. No significant differences were observed among the three groups regarding protein, lactose, solid not fat content and pH. These results proved the capability of camels to tolerate the dehydration conditions and produce sufficient amount of milk.