Cold winter kills 2,600 head of livestock in Mongolia

ULAN BATOR, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Extremely cold winter known as dzud in Mongolia has killed more than 2,600 head of livestock in January in the western province of Uvs alone, Mongolia's National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said Wednesday.

Currently, dzud is affecting six of the 21 provinces in the country, with snowfall hitting up to 90 percent of the Uvs province, some 1,300 km away from the national capital Ulan Bator, according to the NEMA.

In Mongolia, "dzud" is a term to describe the frigid winter that comes after a dry summer and causes a great number of livestock to die of starvation or cold.

In 2016, more than 1 million animals were killed by dzud in the country.