14 DAY TRIAL // Since spring 2013, more than 1 million piglets in the United States have been killed by the porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) virus. Researchers and pork producers are currently trying to identify and eliminate the sources of the infection, but thus far with limited results.
Scientists now fear that the total number of “casualties” for this virus may increase to 3 or 4 million piglets throughout North America by the end of this winter. Last Thursday, on January 23, Canadian authorities have reported their first case of the PED virus, meaning that the infection is spreading.
In the United States, the disease has already spread to 23 states, but experts estimate that Iowa, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Minnesota and Kansas are the worst-hit. Iowa State University professor of veterinary medicine Rodney Baker says that the virus is unlikely to abate in infecting new piglets.
“It's easy to imagine that we could have lost a million pigs, and before the winter is over I wouldn't be surprised if that impact would be maybe three, four times that,” the expert says. Some economists are suggesting that this massive loss in stocks may drive up the price of bacon, but exactly when this will happen is very difficult to predict.
“The losses from PEDV have not had a chance to filter all the way through even to the price of pigs yet,” explains the president of Adel, Iowa-based Paragon Economics, Steve Meyer, quoted by NPR.
One of the things that also play a role in setting the market price for pigs and their meat is the price of feed. Statistics show that the huge corn harvest recorded last summer has driven the price of feed down, making pork cheaper to buy.
Additionally, veterinarians are reporting that farmers seek to minimize their losses by allowing unaffected pigs to put on more weight before they are sacrificed. Overall, the amount of meat on the shelves may not decrease after all, and the economic losses to this sector may be minimal.
Adult pigs are very likely to escape PED infections after a while, but piglets tend to be more severely affected. Most of the time, they are killed through the dehydration brought on by diarrhea, as they become unable to drink any more water.