Pork Prices Expected to Double by this time in 2015

[JohnyMac]

Apparently there is a bug called Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus that is affecting pigs in 27 states that produce pork.

I’m talking about Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus or PEDV for short.
 PEDV is a disease that has killed over 5 million pigs in the United States since last May. In the month of January alone, about 1.3 million pigs died. PEDV has been confirmed in over 27 states and is spreading like a prairie wildfire.

Here in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio it is all farmers are talking about.
 Just in the last 10 days a small local pork producer lost 282 piglets out of a group of 300 over the course of 2 days.
 Farmers are afraid to buy or sell pigs and bio-security and voluntary quarantine have become watchwords on all farms with pigs.
 Farmers are scrubbing down their boots and scrubbing out their stock trailers with Clorox after visiting the sale barn or stock yards or their neighbors.
 Farmers are freaking out.

Starting in April's competitive price, I am going to add pork to the shopping list. Keep in mind this is not just pork loins, but bacon, sausage, smoked ham, scrapple, the pork that is added to your venison burger, etcetera.

[special-k]

I'd bet a dollar this has something to do with GMO in the feed.

[JohnyMac]

Maybe SK.

This time of year my neighbors buy starter pigs. Starter pigs are recently weaned piglets. They raise them for about a year and then have them butchered. Starter pigs go for around $35- ea.

When they make their buy this year, they will need to keep them segregated from the other pigs for a bit.

Pigs are interesting farm critters. They will pretty much eat anything you feed them. My neighbor gets supermarket throwaway veggies for nothing which is what they feed their pigs throughout the winter and early spring. During the summer they eat garden waste and other things. They use to be fed the farms leftover milk from Mooochelle but she was put down in October for milk fever.

[1000meterstare]

That sucks, cuz right now pork is the best bargain the the meat department!

[Well-Prepared Witch]

A lot of it has to do with the factory farming methods.  When you force animals to live in such crowded, sometimes squalid, conditions you invite diseases to breed and grow.  When animals are pasture-raised or free-ranged and then properly rotated/managed, the sun, one of the strongest disinfectants we have, is able to help clean out the bacteria and virii.  Not to mention that the animals are far less stressed and therefore have stronger immune systems!  Our factory-farm complex is trying to breed pigs that don't experience stress so they can cram them in together rather than finding ways to make proper farm management more affordable and common.

[JohnyMac]

To wellie's point....

Journal- Advocate reports:

Like other viral enteric diseases, treatment for PEDv is supportive. Providing a clean, dry, draft-free environment is important. Providing access to high quality drinking water is critical and supplementing the water with electrolytes may be beneficial. Isolating sick pigs is very important in preventing the spread of the disease to other pigs. TGE vaccines are NOT effective against PEDv.

The best prevention against PEDv is biosecurity. Keeping your facilities, pens and equipment (trailers, tack box and contents) clean and disinfected is essential. Also, restricting people who have been around other pigs from coming in contact with your pigs should be considered; a minimum of 12 hours down time between pig exposures and a complete change of clothing, including boots, are an effective deterrent against people tracking the virus. Examples of disinfectants effective against PEDv include Clorox®, Virkon S® and 1 Stroke Environ®. However, before disinfecting you must remember to thoroughly clean to remove all manure and allow the item or area to dry after disinfecting to insure the destruction of the virus. Heat is also effective; temperatures above 150˚ F for more than 10 minutes will inactivate the virus.

The WSJ ran an article on this topic too back in January.

[Burt Gummer]

Serves them right!

[JohnyMac]

  to funny Burt!