Identification of hair follicle characteristics and activity of one and two humped camels

This experiment was conducted to identify some aspects of follicle characteristics and the extent of follicle inactivity of dromedarius and bactrianus camels kept in different provinces of Iran. A total of 190 dromedarian and 11 bactrian male and female camels were grouped into different age classes. To determine follicle characteristics and the percentage of follicle inactivity, samples of skin were taken from the right midside of animals. The overall average S/P ratio, primary follicle density, secondary follicle density, total primary plus secondary follicle density and percentage of inactive secondary follicles of dromedarian camels were 6.3 ± 0.1, 4.2 ± 0.1, 26.0 ± 0.4, 30.1 ± 0.4 and 29.2 ± 1.2 and of bactrian camels were 8.5 ± 0.4, 3.8 ± 0.2, 29.1 ± 1.4, 32.8 ± 1.3 and 31.2 ± 4.7 respectively. Significant (P ≤ 0.05) difference was found in some follicle characteristics between the camels. Large variations existed between individual camels in the percentage of inactive secondary follicles ranging from 7% to 74%.