The herders participating in this study clearly differentiated
between two complexes of respiratory diseases in camels, based
on clinical symptoms and epidemiology. Other relevant criteria
used by camel pastoralists to differentiate between RDC1 and RDC2
were the recurrence of disease in the same animals, the age-group
most affected, the relative frequency ofoccurrence, morbidity rates,
mortality rates and the clinical response to antibiotic treatments.
For respiratory disease of camels in North Somalia, Catley and
Mohammed (1995) differentiate between Hargab, a mild respiratory disease, and Dhugato, a respiratory disease characterized by
prolonged debilitation and long recovery. The differentiation of
these two Somali clinical terms recorded by Catley and Mohammed
(1995) agrees with the use of the two terms Hergeb and Dhuguta
documented for camel herdsmen from northern Kenya in this
study. Moallin (2009) is also in general agreement with the clinical terminology of camel pastoralists described in this paper, by
using the terms Hergeb and Dhuguta to differentiate between camel
influenza and camel pneumonia, respectively. Moallin (2009) also
mentions that Dhuguta responds to antibiotic treatment such as
oxytetracycline, procaine penicillin and gentamicin while Hergeb
is refractory to treatments with antibiotics. This statement is in full
agreement with the information from camel pastoralists on RDC 1
and RDC 2 presented in this paper. Schwartz and Dioli (1992) and
Dioli (2013) summarise all respiratory disease conditions of Kenyan
camels under one major ‘Respiratory Disease Complexı´ equated
in the 1992 publication with the Somali term Erghib. KoehlerRollefson et al. (2001) summarize respiratory disease conditions of
camels as “coughs, colds and pneumonia”. According to Shiferaw
et al. (2011), the aetiology of pulmonary disease in camels is complex and involves several factors. Kebede and Gelaye (2010) state
that the primary cause ofcamel respiratory disease is Parainfluenza-
3 which predisposes the animal to secondary bacterial infection;
the main one being Mannheimia haemolytica, emphasising the