Camelids: new players in the international animal production context

Abstract

The Camelidae family comprises the Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus), the dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius), and four species of South American camelids: llama (Lama glama), alpaca (Lama pacos) guanaco (Lama guanicoe), and vicuña (Vicugna vicugna). The main characteristic of these species is their ability to cope with either hard climatic conditions like those found in arid regions (Bactrian and dromedary camels) or high-altitude landscapes like those found in South America (South American camelids). Because of such interesting physiological and adaptive traits, the interest for these animals as livestock species has increased considerably over the last years. In general, the main animal products obtained from these animals are meat, milk, and hair fiber, although they are also used for races and work among other activities. In the near future, climate change will likely decrease agricultural areas for animal production worldwide, particularly in the tropics and subtropics where competition with crops for human consumption is a major problem already. In such conditions, extensive animal production could be limited in some extent to semi-arid rangelands, subjected to periodical draughts and erratic patterns of rainfall, severely affecting conventional livestock production, namely cattle and sheep. In the tropics and subtropics, camelids may become an important protein source for humans. This article aims to review some of the recent literature about the meat, milk, and hair fiber production in the six existing camelid species highlighting their benefits and drawbacks, overall contributing to the development of camelid production in the framework of food security.Access provided by Universidade de Lisboa, member of B-on Consortium Portugal

How many large camelids in the world? A synthetic analysis of the world camel demographic changes

“…18). However, in all those countries, the number is marginal or even incidental (Zarrin et al 2020).…”

Functional and Genomic Characterization of Ligilactobacillus salivarius TUCO-L2 Isolated From Lama glama Milk: A Promising Immunobiotic Strain to Combat Infections

“…The Camelidae family comprises the dromedary camel or camel of the plains (Camelus dromedarius), Bactrian camel or camel of the mountains (Camelus bactrianus), and four species of South American camelids, including guanaco (Lama guanicoe), vicuña (Vicugna vicugna), alpaca (Lama pacos), and llama (Lama glama) (Fukuda, 2013;Zarrin et al, 2020). The milk of camels has been a part of the daily diet of nomadic people living in the steppe and arid areas of central Asia for centuries because of its good nutritional properties (Shabo et al, 2005).…”

“…In South America, the guanaco and vicuña camelids are wild animals, and alpaca and llama are domesticated species (Zarrin et al, 2020). It is estimated that there are approximately 5 million llamas in South America (FAOSTAT, 2019).…”

“…Llama meat has been characterized and was shown to be rich in iron and zinc (Polidori et al, 2007) and contain low fat and cholesterol compared with those in the meat of other livestock species (Cristofanelli et al, 2004). On the other hand, although milk yield in llamas is very low compared with that in dairy cows, llama milk has higher levels of protein, fat, and lactose than those in the cow milk; these properties suggest that llama milk can be used to develop new dairy products (Larico et al, 2018;Zarrin et al, 2020). These characteristics of llama milk suggest that it can be used as an alternative to cow milk; however, there are no in-depth studies on the biotechnological and functional potential of llama milk.…”

Draft Genome Sequence of Ligilactobacillus salivarius TUCO-L2, Isolated from Lama glama Milk

“…The milk microbiota from other domestic animals has been less explored. The Andean Mountains in South America harbor domestic animals with unique characteristics, including the domesticated camelid llama ( Lama glama ), which is valued in the local economy because of their meat, milk, and hair fiber ( 10 , 11 ).…”