Camels in Egypt: Population, Diversity and Genetic Identification Challenges

Globally, camels are reaching almost 35 million head, most of them are domesticated in Africa, mainly in Somalia followed by Sudan. In Egypt, camels’ population recorded 119,885 thousand head in 2019, and during the period of 1994-2019 their numbers showed increases and decreases. Egypt is depending on importing camels from Somalia and Sudan with lower exporting rate. In the past, camels were not giving the required attention in spite of their morphological and physiological features that allow them to live and produce in harsh environmental conditions. Nowadays, the scientific communities gave camels attention due to their incredible features, and recently many studies have applied to identify the genetic merit of camels and produce new breeds such as the Tulu (new breed in Turky). Therefore, this review will focus on camels’ population and breeds worldwide and in Egypt with particular references to the studies that concern about camel genome.