Catastrophic monsoon-triggered floods leave over 736,000 livestock dead in Pakistan 

Historic floods triggered by abnormal monsoon rains across the country have left more than 736,000 cattle dead, and 334 poultry and 156 fish farms vanished and it is feared that the number of cattle casualties are growing rapidly.

According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), from June 14 to August 28, as many as 736,459 cattle have died so far across the country. 

More than 500,000 livestock have died in Balochistan, 8,771 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 23,000 in Punjab and 15,000 in Sindh.

Livestock experts fear more cattle casualties that are still unreported and spread of foot and mouth as well as stomach diseases among cattle in the flood-affected areas.

According to farmers, due to the death of cattle, there is a shortage of meat, milk, curd and milk products in the country.

According to the Punjab Livestock department’s spokesperson, as many as 266,700 cattle have died in Rajanpur, 1,784 in Dera Ghazi Khan, and 331 in Mianwali.

He says 7,759 animals were rescued from the flood-affected areas with the support of aid agencies, and around 250 animals were with the rescued families living in tents. Similarly, more than 187,000 small and large cattle were vaccinated.

Financial year 2021-22 economic survey shows that the livestock sector accounts for 61 per cent of Pakistan's agricultural value-added products, while the share of livestock in Pakistan's overall GDP is 14 per cent.

Eight million families of the rural population of Pakistan raise cattle and 35-40 per cent of their income came from livestock.

Current population of farm animals in Pakistan consist of 23.34 million buffaloes, 22.42 million cattle, 24.24 million sheep, 49.14 million goats and 0.77 million camels.

As of 2020, there were approximately 41.2 million buffaloes, 49.6 million cattle, 5.4 million donkeys, 78.2 million goats and 30.9 million sheep in Pakistan.

Commercial poultry numbered 170.1 million broilers and 10.36 million layers in 1999. There were also 108 million poultry kept and tamed by people.