Evidence is provided that dromedary heavy-chain antibodies, in vivo-matured in the absence of light chains, are a unique source of inhibitory antibodies. After immunization of a dromedary with bovine erythrocyte carbonic anhydrase and porcine pancreatic alpha-amylase, it was demonstrated that a considerable amount of heavy-chain antibodies, acting as true competitive inhibitors, circulate in th...

A new hepatitis E virus (HEV-7) was recently found in dromedaries and 1 human from the United Arab Emirates. We screened 2,438 dromedary samples from Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and 4 African countries. HEV-7 is long established, diversified and geographically widespread. Dromedaries may constitute a neglected source of zoonotic HEV infections.

Two of the earliest Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) cases were men who had visited the Doha central animal market and adjoining slaughterhouse in Qatar. We show that a high proportion of camels presenting for slaughter in Qatar show evidence for nasal MERS-CoV shedding (62/105). Sequence analysis showed the circulation of at least five different virus strains at these premises, suggesti...

A total of 120 quarter milk samples from 30 clinically healthy dromedary camel from Al-Jouf, Saudi Arabia were cultured to detect subclinical udder infection. The milk samples were screened by somatic cell count (SCC) and California mastitis test (CMT). Gram-positive cocci were the dominant recovered udder pathogen. The mean value of SCC was 125,000 cells/ mm. Infected quarter had generally hig...

Introduction: The aim of this study was to establish a description of the water cells area in dromedary camels. Methods: Ten clinically healthy of both sexes and different age, 4-9 years old were used in this study. The rumen was cut and opened, the contents were emptied of the rumen, then washed by running tap water to remove the ingestion. They were preserved in 10% formalin for 3-4 days to s...