Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China's top grazing ground, is suffering from a rat plague on about 10 percent of its pastoral areas.

Zhang Zhuoran, chief of vegetation conservation section of the region's Prairie Affairs Station, said there were 62.87 million hectares of exploitable pasture in the region, and six million hectares were overrun with rats.

There were outbreaks of rat plague in Hulun Buir and Xilin Gol leagues, the two main prairies in northeastern Inner Mongolia, with 1.4 million ha of pastoral areas affected.

The worst-hit area is Xin Barag Right Banner, a county-level area that falls under the jurisdiction of Hulun Buir League.

Local prairie affairs station monitors indicate that 40 percent of Xin Barag Right Banner's pasture land is infested. There were 977 rodent holes on an average for each hectare.

Zhang blamed a severe drought caused by minimal rainfall.

(Xinhua News Agency April 19, 2008)