Killer Pig Virus Wipes Out More Than 10 Percent Of US Hogs - Spike in Pork Prices

[davey72]

I have a neighbor with quite a few free range pigs. They breed naturally and he does not inject them with anything so i am lucky that i can get weiner oigs cheap. This way i can get them in the spring and feed them mainly grass etc and the food being virtually free can butcher them in the fall so that no matter how big they get i feel it would be worth it. The only thing i will do differently is to castrate them while they are young. I have two males that i kept through the winter but they werent castrated. I suppose i will just have to make sure i cook the meat thoroughly outside to get the raint smell out as i dont think i will attempt castration at this point. The biggest problem i have is that i have grown too close to them now.

In my experience meat from uncastrated hogs are not so bad, but the fat is awful, really inedible. But, they say that also depends on the pig's sort.

Thats not good. I had never heard that. What exactly is wrong with it and what type of pig was this from? sorry to get off topic.

 

[Nević Nenad]

I have a neighbor with quite a few free range pigs. They breed naturally and he does not inject them with anything so i am lucky that i can get weiner oigs cheap. This way i can get them in the spring and feed them mainly grass etc and the food being virtually free can butcher them in the fall so that no matter how big they get i feel it would be worth it. The only thing i will do differently is to castrate them while they are young. I have two males that i kept through the winter but they werent castrated. I suppose i will just have to make sure i cook the meat thoroughly outside to get the raint smell out as i dont think i will attempt castration at this point. The biggest problem i have is that i have grown too close to them now.

In my experience meat from uncastrated hogs are not so bad, but the fat is awful, really inedible. But, they say that also depends on the pig's sort.

Thats not good. I had never heard that. What exactly is wrong with it and what type of pig was this from? sorry to get off topic.

That is beyond my knowledge. I only know that the meat which was told to me that was of uncastrated hog was not that bad (although it wasn't so good taste), and fat was very bad. Texture was normal but the smell and taste was very bad and strong. I don't know the name of the type in english, in Serbia name is Mangulica or Mangalica, (it was on farm where that type is grown). Maybe pictures can help:

_https://www.google.rs/search?q=mangulica&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=5T2oU7OlA8qAywPTuYLwDQ&sqi=2&ved=0CIQBEIke&biw=1920&bih=947

 

[Persej]

Actually the pork price went down these days and they say that it will go further down some 5-8% in the future days. As I have understood it because of the good corn harvest last year.

As I have understood price is going down because floods destroyed many crop fields this year and people do not have enough food for their animals so they want to get rid of them.

 

[Nević Nenad]

Actually the pork price went down these days and they say that it will go further down some 5-8% in the future days. As I have understood it because of the good corn harvest last year.

As I have understood price is going down because floods destroyed many crop fields this year and people do not have enough food for their animals so they want to get rid of them.

Maybe. I wrote what I have read. But, have in mind that the agriculture in Serbia is extensive. Which means undeveloped. People are living in vilages, but majority of them are producing food only for their own needs, not on bigger (farm) level. People getting rid of the animals doesn't mean much, because people doesn't have many animals in the first place. Average peasant (lets call like that people that live in villages) usually have only animals for their own food, and it is hardly unlikely they will get rid of them. It is possible that farms are getting rid of the animals, but there is no need for that because even now they are selling large quantities to Russia. I live now in small town with many villages around. Town of Smederevska Palanka which was affected by the flood. The town itself has some 25.000 people and some 30 - 35.000 in surrounding villages. Occasionally I am in some village, and I didn't get impression that they are getting rid of their pigs (or some other animals). But, that could be the case maybe in Vojvodina, because it is a bit more rich area.

 

[Persej]

As far as I can see from the link that you posted, in the first four months of this year we have imported more than double of pork than previous year. That is probably killing our pork prices.

 

[Keit]

There is a very interesting article and an update on the PED (porcine epidemic diarrhea). Also watch videos for more info.

Here are some curious bits:

_http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/06/17/factory-farming-ped-virus.aspx

"Swine veterinarian Bill Minton thought the baby pigs dying at a farm in western Ohio had a bad case of gastro-enteritis and was stumped when lab results came back with no indication of what had killed them.

It took nearly 30 days – and hundreds more pigs dying in five other states - for Minton to learn the farm was ground zero for a virulent, fast-spreading virus that had never been seen before in the United States."

The virus, called Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv), has been traced back to pig’s blood used in piglet feed to promote growth and enhance immune function

All this mixing and cross-contamination allows for pathogens to contaminate huge amounts of food products, and is the reason why a single food contamination can affect people across multiple states—or in this case, animals across multiple states, even without direct contact between affected farms.

It's worth noting that there are no interstate or trade restrictions in place within the US pertaining to PEDv.7 It's also not considered a food safety concern, for the fact that it is not transmissible to humans. Still, the fact of the matter is that agricultural overuse of antibiotics have rendered a whole host of pathogens immune to these lifesaving drugs, and continuously promote the mutation of pathogens into ever more virulent strains. Disease promulgation is a major problem inherent of the factory farm model, period.

PED virus has traditionally been a relatively mild pathogen. Only recently did it suddenly evolve into a far more aggressive version—with a mortality rate of nearly 100 percent among affected animals!

Besides antibiotic overuse, which now poses a MAJOR human health threat, confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) also promote diseases that simply would not occur in the organic model, through the wholly unnatural diets used in the CAFO setting. Using pig plasma and pork meal9 in CAFO pig feed effectively turns these pigs into cannibals—a practice that has a tendency to create problems.

 

[Keit]

Another outbreak of African swine fever, this time in Latvia, and as the article says:

http://www.sott.net/article/281295-Latvia-may-declare-state-of-emergency-to-cope-with-African-swine-fever

Swine fever was discovered in Latvia at the end of June and earlier in both Lithuania and Poland. The disease occurs among pigs and wild boars, where its effects are devastating and often deadly, and there is no vaccine.

The Russian sites say, that ASF was also detected in Russia, in the areas close to Belarus and Latvia, like Smolensk.

I find it really interesting, that at the same time while ASF is spiking pork prices in the Eastern Europe, PED is spiking pork prices in the US. Can't stop wondering if there is a connection.

 

[Persej]

@Keit A couple of days ago I watched a TV show about swine flu vaccines in Serbia. As I already said in this thread, Serbia cannot export swine meat into EU because of vaccination. So why don't they just stop vaccinating the pigs? Well, they say that there are basically two categories of farms. There is category one and category two. Category one can stop using the vaccines immediately because they have good hygiene and other conditions. But the problem is in farms from category two which still do not have a proper (HAACP perhaps?) conditions. In there, there is a possibility of emergence of swine flu. And the main problem is that if there is a swine flu in one farm, then the EU blocks the whole country from export, not just that farm. So they cannot stop giving the flu shots to swines until all farms switch to better conditions.

It sounds a little stupid to me, but that's how they explained the situation. There is also another explanation:

This measure is active only in our country. According to Vidovic, the Slovenians left that measure nine years ago, and to the question of why this is, he responds: because of the strong veterinary-political-pharmacy lobby that will not give up the big funds that each year gets on the account of the vaccination.
Sa Tenisom i bez Tenisa srpsko svinjarstvo i dalje pod sankcijama (SRB)

Sounds familiar?

 

[Yozilla]

In Spain, on the other hand, pigs have outnumbered the very population itself:

"For the first time in recorded history, pigs in Spain outnumber humans. The country’s environment ministry calculated there are currently 50 million pigs compared to 46.5 million humans. This is an increase of 9 million animals since 2013."

Pigs Outnumber People in Spain for First Time — Why This is Awful News for the Environment

Added: in Denmark too:

Statistics show pigs are hogging the market in Europe as the largest livestock category and outnumber people in Denmark by more than two-to-one.

...

Denmark is the only country where pigs outnumber people , with 215 pigs to every 100 residents. Not coincidentally, it's also a country known in Europe for its quality bacon.

Hog wild: Pigs outnumber people in Denmark, No. 1 in... | Daily Mail Online

 

[JEEP]

Just a blurb pertaining to the fallout of the African Swine Fever:

Will African swine fever cause BACON APOCALYPSE (aka 1000$ bacon?) due to pigs being nearly wiped out ?

Although I am loyal to pork products, I would switch to turkey bacon if pork ended up costing 1000$ per slice of bacon.

Will African swine fever cause BACON APOCALYPSE (aka 1000$ bacon?) – Investment Watch

www.investmentwatchblog.com

 

[Persej]

From the end of the last year we finally stopped giving the vaccines to pigs. Now we wait for the approval from the EU for exporting the pigs into the EU. The vaccine makers will lose a lot of money.

He adds that in that way, the allocations for that medicine will be reduced, for which significant funds were given from the budget.

"In the last 10 years, more than 70 million euros have been paid for the purchase of vaccines, because between 2.8 and 3.2 million pigs have been vaccinated annually," said the source of "Blic".

Blic: Obustavlja se vakcinacija svinja

Od 15. decembra, posle više od 30 godina, svinje sa najvećeg broja farmi u Srbiji više neće biti vakcinisane protiv klasične kuge svinja što domaćim proizvođačima, u dogledno vreme, otvara put za plasman mesa na tržište Evropske unije, piše danas "Blic".

www.danas.rs