The emergence of PEDV took the U.S. by storm and according to Dr Phillip Gauger, with Iowa State University, Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, between April 28 – May 4, 2013 they had four separate ISU-VDL submissions – one from Indiana and three from Iowa – from farms with no relationship. He and his team realized after running diagnostic tests that more … Read More
5-Year PRRS Swine Health Monitoring Project Update
Dane Goede is a PhD student at the University of Minnesota and during grad school, he began working on the then, fairly new, Swine Health Monitoring Project. Today, he has the opportunity to continue working on the project and during a media dinner hosted by Boehringer Ingelheim (BIVI), attendees had the opportunity to learn about the results of the 5-Year … Read More
NPPC Industry Relations Update
Dr. Howard Hill, National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) president, veterinarian and producer from Cambridge, Iowa officially kicked off the 26th annual World Pork Expo 2014 (WPX) during a media press conference. He noted that WPX is the largest trade show and exhibition in the world and attendance was nearly 20,000 people over the three day show. Last year there were … Read More
#Feedthe9 with More Pork, Fewer Resources
What if the world could produce 50% more pork using 434 million tons less feed, on 262 million less acres, and with 260 billion gallons less water? Think that’s possible? Well, Elanco Animal Health does. “Currently we’re able to produce enough pork for everyone across the globe to have access to 10.7 ounces of pork per week,” says Rob Aukerman, … Read More
Iowa Congressman is Animal Ag Advocate
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) paid a visit to World Pork Expo last week to talk with producers and learn more about the issues they are facing right now. The congressman represents the 4th district of the state in the northwest corner, bordering Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska, and he is a strong advocate for livestock producers. During the farm bill … Read More
NPPC Environmental Issues Update
National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) president-elect Dr. Ron Prestage of South Carolina provided an update on some environmental issues on the forefront for the hog industry during World Pork Expo last week. First of all, Prestage says pork producers are encouraged by Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy, who has been in the position for the past year or so. … Read More
USDA PEDv Action Announced at WPX
This year was the first time Tom Vilsack visited World Pork Expo as Secretary of Agriculture and he did so to announce federal actions to help combat porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) and porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV). First of all, Vilsack says there is now a Federal Order requiring the reporting of new detections of these viruses to its Animal and … Read More
COOL Not Cool with Mexico and Canada
The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) provided an update on mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL) during World Pork Expo this week. “We’re very concerned that if the current rule later this summer is ruled out of compliance by the WTO, the Canadians and Mexicans will then have a right to retaliate,” said NPPC Vice President John Weber of Iowa, … Read More
Economic Outlook for Pork Industry
Steve Meyer, Paragon Economics, provided an update on the economic outlook for the pork industry at the 2014 World Pork Expo on Thursday. “The grain situation, the cost situation, is considerably better than a year ago, somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 per hundred weight better on cost of production,” said Meyer, adding that the outlook for the corn crop … Read More
PRRS Loses Steam with BIVI Solutions
Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica (BIVI) celebrated 20 years of PRRS (porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome) solutions during this year’s World Pork Expo. Reid Philips, DVM, technical manager for PRRS vaccines and BIVI outlined how far the swine industry has come in the last two decades in controlling the virus. Interestingly, Reid explained that in the 1980s when PRRS was first showing … Read More