Porcine Epidemic Diarrhoea (PED) has been confirmed in 18 US states and, with the onset of cooler weather, its spread appears to be picking up after having slowed.

H@ms Marketing Services general manager Perry Mohr notes the spread is increasing in North Carolina, a state that produces a tremendous number of weanling pigs and, with mortality rates among baby pigs running between 80 and 100 per cent, that's expected to start impacting US slaughter rates.

Perry Mohr-h@ms Marketing Services

We do not believe that it has had any impact to date on slaughter rates.

Initially we thought that, between November and January, it could take about two per cent of the hogs off of the US slaughter and what that means is probably about 100 thousand pigs a week we were expecting to not be available.

As far as opportunities are concerned, it's been discussed that it could create opportunities for Canadian weanling producers in the United States.

I believe that that could be true.

The one mitigating factor to the opportunities created for Canadian producers of course would be the fact that the US has the Country of Origin Labelling [COOL] legislation in place and there's not very many processors today that are purchasing hogs of Canadian origin and slaughtering them so I would be somewhat guarded in suggesting that's going to create a huge opportunity at this particular time unless the US processors make a concerted decision to not adhere to the Country of Origin Labelling legislation and buy Canadian pigs just simply to keep hooks full.

Mr Mohr suggests the situation has not yet become serious enough to cause those processors to consider that.

Further Reading

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