Virus Killing 8 Million Pigs Means Expensive Barbecues.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-05/virus-killing-8-million-pigs-means-expensive-barbecues.html

This summer, U.S. consumers can look forward to opening a cold beer, firing up the grill and throwing on the most expensive pork chop they have ever purchased.

A deadly disease has spread to more than 4,700 U.S. hog operations and that number is growing by as much as 200 every week, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said yesterday at the World Pork Expo in Des Moines,Iowa. The porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, or PED, has killed about 8 million pigs since the outbreak began in May 2013, according to Paragon Economics.

The spreading virus sent retail pork-chops to an all-time high of $4.044 a pound in April, the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show, and the American Farm Bureau Federation has said that meat expenses are going to keep climbing. Costs are rising before the start of the seasonal peak in U.S. meat demand, as a shrinking cattle herd sent ground beef to a record, while whole chickens are near the highest ever.

Falling Slaughter

The industry does not yet have the virus “under control,” and cases of infection may start to climb at a faster pace later this year as temperatures cool, Steve Meyer, the president of Paragon Economics, said yesterday in Des Moines. The virus is believed to survive better in the winter. Hog slaughter may drop as much as 10 percent in the third quarter, he estimates.Consumers will pay as much as 4 percent more for pork this year, and costs for beef and veal will rise as much as 6.5 percent, the most of any food group, the USDA forecasts. There’s “no relief” for protein eaters, and record prices for beef probably won’t let up for the next 18 months, Ricky Volpe, an economist with the USDA’s Economic Research Service in Washington, said May 23.

The USDA has yet to identify the cause of PED in the U.S., making it harder to eradicate, Karen Richter, who has been in the business for 28 years, said in Des Moines. On her farm in Montgomery,Minnesota, the hog barns are only about one-third full after her supplier of young pigs saw its animals struck by the disease.