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  • Bacon Prices Up; Is Your BLT Diseased?

    In a piece of apocalyptic news that rivals the blood moon tetrad, bacon prices are going up. The National Pork Board had to release a press statement about a virus called the “porcine epidemic diarrhea virus” (PEDV) that is killing millions of pigs. As Galen Velonis reported, the virus thrived right through the winter and shows little sign of stopping.

    The Pork Board is trying to calm fears about the virus, and with good reason. It’s bad enough to have a problem that is decimating your supply, jacking up prices and causing people to look for other pigging out alternatives. But if people were to start thinking that your product may be diseased, well, that’s a whole different problem altogether. Just ask beef producers, especially in England.

    The pork people plaintively point out:

    * This is not a new virus, nor is it a regulatory/reportable disease. Since PEDV is widespread in many countries, it is not a trade-restricting disease, but rather a production-related disease.

    * It is not zoonotic, so therefore it poses no risk to other animals or humans. Also, it poses no risk to food safety.

    * The virus is not a new virus as it was first recognized in England in 1971. Since then, the disease has been identified in a number of European countries, and more recently in China, Korea and Japan.

    * PEDV does not affect pork safety. Pork remains completely safe to eat.

    But the statement that “this is not a new virus” is meeting with a challenge. As NBC News points out, it may be old news in England, China, et al, but this is a first in the U.S., and it is tearing through pig farms from coast to coast with a Legionic vengeance.

    The news that bacon prices are going up did not sit well with the Twitterverse. As one user pointed out: “This is how The Walking Dead started.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Bacon Prices Rise After Virus Kills Millions of Baby Pigs

    A virus not seen before in the United States killed millions of baby pigs since last May, and it is threatening pork production and pushing up pork prices.

    Estimates on how many pigs have died from porcine epidemic diarrhea in the last year vary, from 2.7 million to as many as 6 million. Because PED thrives in cold weather, there has been a larger death toll since December. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported the country’s pig population has decreased by as much as three percent to roughly 63 million pigs.

    Scientists think the virus came from China, but they do not know how it got into the U.S. or how it spread to 27 states in less than a year. They do know that it does not infect humans or other animals.

    Prices of pork products have already increased sharply. A pound of bacon averaged $5.46 in February, up 13 percent from a year ago, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Ham and chops prices have also gone up, although not much.

    The U.S. is a top producer and exporter of pork, and it is estimated that production could decrease by seven percent this year compared to last year, the biggest drop in more than 30 years, according to Rabobank.

    PED is life-threatening to newborn pigs because it causes them to dehydrate quickly. The best chance at saving young pigs is to wean them and then pump them with clear fluids that hydrate them. Craig Rowles, a farmer and veterinarian with a farm in Iowa, explained that many of the 13,000 pigs that died on his farm in a matter of weeks in November had to be euthanized.

    “It’s very difficult for the people who are working the barns at that point,” Rowles said.

    “No one wants to go to work today and think about making the decision of baby pigs that need to be humanely euthanized because they can’t get up anymore. Those are very hard days,” Rowles said.

    The federal government is looking into how these types of viruses might spread, and the pork industry has committed $1.7 million to research the disease. Researchers are rushing to come up with a vaccine, but one has not yet been approved by the federal government.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons