To escape the flooding in Pakistan, spiders create megawebs in trees (photo on Flickr from M1K3Y; more images on the Nej Lon Blog).

More than 150,000 cattle have died in Pakistan as a result of the recent flooding, which, just 12 months after the last massive flooding in the country, has washed away fodder resources and helped spread water-borne and other infectious diseases among the animals that survived the floods in the area of Sindh.

‘. . . [H]undreds of cattle from Badin, Mirpurkhas and Sanghar had moved to Tharparkar after rains began, but there was no proper mechanism for their vaccination. . . .

‘Loss of livestock and poultry in rain-affected areas is likely to result in malnutrition of millions of people in these areas. . . .

‘The last Economic Survey of Pakistan said livestock was the best way for poverty alleviation. It accounted for 55.1 percent of the agriculture value added and 11.5 percent of GDP in 2010–11. . . .

‘The emphasis will be on improving per unit animal productivity and moving from subsistence to commercial farming to meet the domestic demand and export the surplus.

‘The objective is to exploit the potential of livestock sector and use it as engine for economic growth and ensure food security.

‘Around 40 million people in rural areas are dependent on livestock. Poultry sector generates employment for about 1.5 million people. Its contribution in agriculture value addition is 4.8 percent. Poultry contributes 24.8 percent to the total meat production in the country. . . .Poultry sector has shown a robust growth of 8-10 percent annually in recent years.’

Read the whole article at The International News: Rains kill 150,000 cattle heads, 27 Sep 2011.