This study investigated the resilience of dromedary camels (Camelus dromedarius) to chronic heat stress by analyzing fatty acid composition and oxidative stability in longissimus dorsi muscle. Twenty-eight adult males were subjected to thermoneutral (THI 80) conditions for 90 days while maintained on identical diets. Gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC-FID) revealed ex-ceptional lipid stability under thermal challenge: saturated fatty acids (SFA) showed a negligible increase from 47.3% to 47.6% (+0.3 percentage points, P>0.05), while monounsaturated (MUFA) and polyunsatu-rated fatty acids (PUFA) decreased by only 2.4% (P0.05) and 10.0% (P>0.05), suggesting preserved rumen biohydroge-nation pathways. Oxidative stability metrics confirmed this thermotolerance, with thiobarbituric acid reac-tive substances (TBARS) increasing moderately (12.5%, P0.05), indicating maintained cardiovascular health benefits. Differential scanning calorimetry revealed minimal melting point elevation (+0.8 ˚C, P<0.07), suggesting stable membrane fluidity. These results demonstrate camels' superior lipid preservation capacity during prolonged heat exposure, attribut-able to evolutionary adaptations including heat-stable desaturase activity (SCD1 gene expression), en-hanced antioxidant systems, and efficient lipid repartitioning. The findings position dromedary camels as critical climate-resilient livestock for sustainable meat production (quality and quantity-wise) in warming regions, with implications for: (1) arid zone food security programs, (2) genetic selection of thermo-tolerant traits in other species, and (3) development of camelid-based nutritional interventions for heat-stressed ani-mals.
Alrhaif et al. (Mon,) studied this question.