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Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the fibre characteristics in 35 and 92 dromedary camels of 2 to 20 (8.2 ? 0.02 average age) years of age, samples being taken respectively from Mashhad and Yazd provinces in Iran. A small hand clipper was used to collect midside and under - hump fibre samples taken in mid spring to find fibre characteristics. Average staple length, fibre length (Hauter and Barbe system), fat percentage, vegetable matter, shrinkage, standard washing yield, weight inner and outer coat, mean fibre diameter and coefficient of variation of mean fibre diameter were 5.04?0.12 cm, 31.64?0.7mm, 50.13?1.1 mm, 0.38?0.02 %, 1.8?0.22 %, 26.32?0.73 %, 83.3?0.9 %, 76.02?0.85 %, 22.8?0.72 %, 23.4?0.36 ?, 40.58?0.48 % respectively . Analysis of variance indicated a significant (P<0.01) effect of age as well as region, while the effect of sex was not significant. A significant (P<0.001) difference was observed between medullated fibre in midside and under hump samples. Young camels had hairs of significantly (P<0.05) longer and finer fibre than old ones.

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