The world’s biggest camel auction will be held during the ‘International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition’ (Abu Dhabi 2008), said Khalifa Al Nuaimi, Director of Camel & Horse Auctions.

About 80 of the UAE’s best camels, donated by Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan, will be auctioned in Abu Dhabi during the Exhibition added Al Nuaimi.

“The funds generated from the auction, the fourth so far, will go to subsidize camel research” Al Nuaimi pointed out.

The camels were bred via embryo implantation at the Veterinary Research Centre in Sweihan, which helped organise the auction.

The Centre, which was established in 1990 with the support of Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan, consists of two main sections: Veterinary Laboratory and Camel Breeding.

Al Nuaimi explained that the Camel Breeding section, concerned with pedigree racing camels and milk-producing camels, oversaw many successful projects that include breeding 2200 pedigree camels via embryo implantation since 1992, the only centre to conduct such project of that scale.

It also recently succeeded in breeding camels through artificial insemination, using the ‘in vitro’ fertilization.

The section consists of several units: artificial insemination unit, embryo implantation unit, ‘in vitro’ fertilization, and infertility treatment.

The Centre has published an encyclopedia on breeding various types of camels, considered as the reference book of its kind in the Arab World, he said.  

Camels give birth to one newborn every two years, but thanks to the embryo implantation procedure available at the Centre, one camel can give birth to at least five newborns a year.

Camels, which used to serve as means of transportation in the old days, are seen as having symbolic value in Arab tradition.

ADIHEX, which aims to highlight the culture and heritage of the United Arab Emirates, is sponsored by Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Emirates Falconers’ Club (EFC), and organised by the EFC in cooperation with Turret Middle East and support from Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, will be held October 8-11, 2008.