DUBAI: Thousands of camels have died because of ‘toxic fodder’ over August 2007 in Saudi Arabia, where breeders are venting their anger at government officials.

Residents of the desert Gulf region cherish camels, who evoke memories of the battles and feats of their bedouin ancestors.

And breeders, some of whom have lost herds worth millions of dollars, are blaming the ministry in charge.

“Officials of the agriculture ministry have remained arms-folded vis-a-vis this unprecedented disaster,” Rashed bin Khalaf bin Mithqal, a camel owner from the southern Jazan region, charged in the daily Al-Watan.

The local press has described the camel deaths as a ‘national tragedy’ since the unexplained ‘contamination’ claimed its first victims in Wadi al-Dawasser, 400 kilometres south of the capital Riyadh, before spreading to other parts of the vast kingdom. Camels have since been dying in large numbers.

Many owners have attributed the deaths to the bran fed to the animals instead of barley, the price of which has been spiralling.

“It is the bran originating from the (state-owned) silos and mills of Khamis Mushayt (the closest to Wadi al-Dawasser) that is responsible for this catastrophe,” the Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat wrote on Aug 20.

One expert told the business daily Al-Eqtisadiah that the affected camels lose control of their movements and suffer a cerebral haemorrhage and total paralysis.

Twenty-three more camels died on Tuesday in Wadi al-Dawasser, the worst-hit by the phenomenon, according to the local press which has been daily carrying pictures of decomposing carcasses strewn across the desert.

Under fire for alleged negligence, authorities have sent frozen samples of dead camels to be tested in French laboratories.

Agriculture Minister Fahd bin Abdul Rahman Balghnaim told Al-Watan on Thursday that preliminary results, which will be announced soon, showed the bran was contaminated by poisonous fungi.

Ali Khalaf al-Hassawi, a veterinarian with the agriculture ministry, blamed “the wrong methods of stocking bran”. Two weeks after the deaths began, Balghnaim broke his silence to announce that 2,000 camels had died, then revised the figure upwards to 2,500.

An AFP count based on press reports shows, however, that at least 5,000 camels have died and thousands more have become sick, in a country which boasted around 862,000 camels in 2005.

In mid-August, King Abdullah ordered the payment of compensation of $1,066 per head, but camel owners cited in newspapers thought this was too little.

—AFP