KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 — Camels that have received Botox injections and other cosmetics enhancement have been disqualified from competing at a beauty pageant in Saudi Arabia.

The dreams of more than 40 camels being crowned a winner at the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival were dashed, the state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

The contest is a festival highlight where a coveted US$66 million (RM278 million) prize money is up for grabs.

Camel breeding is a highly profitable industry that is worth millions of dollars.

The contestants are judged on their long, droopy lips, a big and a shapely hump.

SPA said judges used advanced technology to detect tampering with camels on an unprecedented scale.

The camels were first assessed on their external appearance and movements by specialists.

Their heads, necks and torso were then scanned with X-ray and 3D ultrasound machines before taking their samples for genetic analysis and other tests.

In the Majaheim camels category alone, 27 contestants were barred from moving forward in the pageant for having stretched body parts while 16 were ejected for receiving injections.

Pageant organisers Camel Club said they were "keen to halt all acts of tampering and deception in the beautification of camels” and that it will "impose strict penalties on manipulators”.

Botox was injected into the camels’ lips, noses, jaws and other parts of their heads to relax muscles, organisers said.

They added that collagen fillers were used to make the animal’s lips and noses bigger while hormones were given to increase muscle growth.

They also discovered that rubber bands were used to make the camels’ body parts bigger than normal by restricting blood flow.

Peta Asia senior vice-president Jason Baker called the contest a "cruel farce”, the BBC reported.

"Subjecting any animal to a cosmetic procedure, from ear cropping to declawing, dehorning, and filler injections, is hideously cruel and shows the humans who use such tactics to be extremely ugly,” he said.

Baker called on Saudi authorities to crack down on events that exploits or abuses animals, saying that animal welfare issues needed to be addressed throughout the Middle East and Asia.

The King Abdulaziz Camel Festival is the largest in the world which lasts for 40 days and sees some 33,000 camel breeders and owners from all over the globe including the US, Russia and France.

The festival which is held 100km north-east of the Saudi capital Riyadh is expected to attract 100,000 tourists daily.