Abstract

Low reproductive performance is one of the most important factors affecting camel productivity. The genetic improvement of dromedary camels is still less progressed compared with other productive farm animals. In order to improve productive and reproductive performance of camels, monitoring and increasing efficient selection strategies in concurrent with developing assisted reproductive technologies and establishing a semen bank for elite camel breeds is urgently needed. To this date, semen preservation and its related techniques in dromedary camels has been slow due to the continual preference of natural breeding with elite males, the difficulty of semen collection, the highly viscous nature of camel semen and the low sperm resilience, unable to withstand processing for preservation. The present article is aimed in surveying of the fundamental challenges of semen collection, processing and preservation from dromedary camels. Developing a collection process, improving the rheological characteristics of delivered semen, modification of extenders and optimizations of the preservation protocols have also been discussed.