TADs in the Dromedary

The transboundary diseases in camel are mainly linked to the regional camel meat market from Sahelian countries (from Mauritania to Somalia) to the Arabian peninsula and North Africa. Indeed, the camel flow in relationship with this market is based on live animals’ export. Because the camel trade can be formal and informal with interconnections between both sectors and despite veterinary controls in the main exporting ports, some diseases such as Rift Valley fever (RVF), PPR-like disease, and MERS-coronavirus can spread from exporting countries to importing ones. However, the epidemiological status of these different diseases is quite variable and the transmission to humans in case of zoonosis (RVF and MERS-Cov) is not necessarily due to transboundary camel trade despite the impact of outbreak on the regional camel market. Globally, dromedary camel is less affected than other ruminants by infectious diseases under transboundary surveillance. But, because camel breeding is concentrated in countries where the disease surveillance systems often lack means, where the frontiers in desert areas are often “porous,” and where the herd mobility is difficult to assess, the risk of transboundary diseases’ transmission through borders is not negligible. Nowadays, the challenge of TADs control is limited to Rift Valley fever, but special attention must be paid to emerging diseases, including the recent discovery of prion disease in Algeria.