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No immediate trade fallout after pseudorabies detections in Iowa and Texas

The CEO of the Iowa Pork Producers Association says U.S. pork export customers have yet to respond to detections of pseudorabies in Iowa and Texas swine herds.

Pat McGonegle tells Brownfield.

“We’re not aware of anything yet, I know there’s some proposals floating around (but) I’m not sure of all of them. Obviously we want to assure our export customers that we’re doing everything we can to stamp this out.”

Last week’s detections mark the first time since 2004 that pseudorabies has been found in domestic commercial swine.

McGonegle says the U.S. is assuring foreign buyers it remains a reliable supplier of pork products.

“Japan, Mexico (and) Korea are the top three, so we want to make sure. And I think the National Pork Producers Council, U.S. Meat Export Federation and USDA have been working really hard in this arena to assure our customers this is not a major issue.”

He says U.S. pork exports are off to a strong start in 2026, particularly to Mexico.