Special Report
PEDv losses estimated at 1.3m
Livestock economist Steve Meyer, president of Paragon Economics, tells Brownfield that pig losses due to the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus, or PEDv, could total 1.3 million head.
“Anecdotally, the industry is kind of working right now that we probably had between 500- and 600-thousand sows break with the disease,” Meyer says. “The losses on those farms will run from 2 to 2.7 pigs per sow—and so, you do the math, you’re probably at 1.3 million or so pigs lost.”
Meyer says those losses will not be reflected in slaughter numbers until the December through April time period.
“So about four or five months of 1.3 million,” he says. “You know, that adds up to a real number when you extrapolate it, should this continue for a year—and in some areas, it’s certainly not slowing down.”
Meyer made those comments in an interview with Brownfield at this week’s National Association of Farm Broadcasting convention in Kansas City.
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