The one-humped camel, or dromedary, is one of the world's hardiest domesticated animals. A vital source of transport, meat, milk and income for pastoralists in the Sahel, East Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, the camel can carry heavy loads for days in some of the world's most hostile conditions. But even camels fall ill. A Field Manual of Camel Diseases is the first practical guide to camel diseases designed for use in low technology environments. The manual details some 80 major camel diseases and conditions, ranging from abortions to wry neck syndrome. For each disease, the authors give the disease signs, its causes, and simple prevention and treatment methods. Both scientific and tried and tested traditional treatments are presented, thus enabling the veterinarian or livestock practitioner to make the most appropriate choice in the prevailing circumstances. A section on procedures explains how to examine a camel, take samples for laboratory analysis and apply various types of medicines.

Livestock raisers and healers throughout the world have traditional ways of classifying and preventing or treating common animal diseases. Many of their "ethnoveterinary" practices offer viable alternatives to conventional Western-style veterinary medicine - especially where the latter is unavailable, unaffordable, unreliable, or inappropriate. This highly interdisciplinary and international volume provides a critico-analytic overview over the many facets and findings of ethnoveterinary research and development. From sociocultural, political-economic, and environmental as well as biomedical viewpoints, the book presents reviews and case studies of traditional veterinary knowledge and practice, along with historical perspectives, theoretical discussions and research methodologies. At a larger level, the anthology exemplifies the many potential benefits, for people everywhere, of systematically studying and building upon such rich bodies of "ethnoscience" as that embodied in local/traditional veterinary medicine.