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Ivan Steinke, executive director of the Colorado Pork Producers, was at his desk and fielding calls related to a flu outbreak originating in Mexico as the Ag Journal went to press this week.
“It’s actually picking up,” he said of the calls. “Today is media day for sure.”
For farmers and ranchers already feeling beleaguered by animal rights attacks targeting the livestock industry, linking the Mexican flu outbreak to the swine industry feels like just another blow.
Steinke said industry leaders were “making progress” in getting public officials and the media to use “H1N1” virus or “North American flu” in place of the misleading term swine flu.
He said he had “mixed emotions” about those new tags, but that any alternative was better than one implicating swine.
As of press time, there was no indication that the strain — a variation of a virus originally found in hogs in the 1930s — is infectious in swine or can be harbored in the pig population.
Even so, swine producers are being urged to step up their bio-security protocols and be extra vigilant regarding the health of workers, especially those who have been traveling.
“In Colorado and surrounding states, there is a strong Hispanic influence in the workplace,” Steinke acknowledged.
Indicating the rising level of panic, Egypt announced the unprecedented move of depopulating its entire swine herd.
Steinke called it a “unrealistic knee jerk response” not backed up with any science and pointed out that the entire swine production in that country is 300,000 head — less than the U.S. slaughters in a single day.
“There is no reason to jump to presumptive things like that at this point in time,” he said.
The main goal of national and state pork groups has been to put out the message that pork products are absolutely safe to eat and to reassure consumers the illness is no reason to panic but is similar to the common flu. “This is outside of the typical flu season when people are out and about more, and that’s my biggest concern is the different time frame,” Steinke said.
Despite assurances from national and world health officials that fresh pork and pork products pose no threat, Russia, China and several other countries quickly enacted various trade bans on live hogs and fresh pork from Mexico and parts of the U.S. Russia imposed a ban on all fresh meat products from certain U.S. states. The economic fallout was dramatic, taking hog prices down 20 percent in two days, disrupting trade of other products like beef and poultry and hurting grain futures as well.
Any trade ban attempting to single out certain states would be very cumbersome for the industry to comply with, Steinke said.
“The unique thing is that within the swine industry so many operations import from other states — pork is such a transported product right now — it would be very cumbersome to comply with that,” he explained. “In Colorado, for example, there is no processing facility for pork, so our production goes to Nebraska, Oklahoma, Iowa or California.”
Market analysts were also worried about the potential impact on pig and pork exports to Mexico, an increasingly significant trading partner for the U.S.
The pork industry has already been under severe financial pressure for about the last 18 months, Steinke said. “This is just another additional burden the industry didn’t need right now,” he said.
While the livestock industry is on the front lines of potential harm from the global health threat, the economic impacts will be far reaching. In Mexico alone, the costs to the economy from shutting down schools, businesses, entertainment and travel were being estimated at more than $1 million a day. Some schools across the U.S. were closing at press time, and it was unclear how disruptive the event would ultimately become for U.S. businesses. President Obama asked Congress to allocate $1.5 billion in federal funds to mobilize against it.
Ivan Steinke, executive director of the Colorado Pork Producers, was at his desk and fielding calls related to a flu outbreak originating in Mexico as the Ag Journal went to press this week.
“It’s actually picking up,” he said of the calls. “Today is media day for sure.”
For farmers and ranchers already feeling beleaguered by animal rights attacks targeting the livestock industry, linking the Mexican flu outbreak to the swine industry feels like just another blow.
Steinke said industry leaders were “making progress” in getting public officials and the media to use “H1N1” virus or “North American flu” in place of the misleading term swine flu.
He said he had “mixed emotions” about those new tags, but that any alternative was better than one implicating swine.
As of press time, there was no indication that the strain — a variation of a virus originally found in hogs in the 1930s — is infectious in swine or can be harbored in the pig population.
Even so, swine producers are being urged to step up their bio-security protocols and be extra vigilant regarding the health of workers, especially those who have been traveling.
“In Colorado and surrounding states, there is a strong Hispanic influence in the workplace,” Steinke acknowledged.
Indicating the rising level of panic, Egypt announced the unprecedented move of depopulating its entire swine herd.
Steinke called it a “unrealistic knee jerk response” not backed up with any science and pointed out that the entire swine production in that country is 300,000 head — less than the U.S. slaughters in a single day.
“There is no reason to jump to presumptive things like that at this point in time,” he said.
The main goal of national and state pork groups has been to put out the message that pork products are absolutely safe to eat and to reassure consumers the illness is no reason to panic but is similar to the common flu. “This is outside of the typical flu season when people are out and about more, and that’s my biggest concern is the different time frame,” Steinke said.
Despite assurances from national and world health officials that fresh pork and pork products pose no threat, Russia, China and several other countries quickly enacted various trade bans on live hogs and fresh pork from Mexico and parts of the U.S. Russia imposed a ban on all fresh meat products from certain U.S. states. The economic fallout was dramatic, taking hog prices down 20 percent in two days, disrupting trade of other products like beef and poultry and hurting grain futures as well.
Any trade ban attempting to single out certain states would be very cumbersome for the industry to comply with, Steinke said.
“The unique thing is that within the swine industry so many operations import from other states — pork is such a transported product right now — it would be very cumbersome to comply with that,” he explained. “In Colorado, for example, there is no processing facility for pork, so our production goes to Nebraska, Oklahoma, Iowa or California.”
Market analysts were also worried about the potential impact on pig and pork exports to Mexico, an increasingly significant trading partner for the U.S.
The pork industry has already been under severe financial pressure for about the last 18 months, Steinke said. “This is just another additional burden the industry didn’t need right now,” he said.
While the livestock industry is on the front lines of potential harm from the global health threat, the economic impacts will be far reaching. In Mexico alone, the costs to the economy from shutting down schools, businesses, entertainment and travel were being estimated at more than $1 million a day. Some schools across the U.S. were closing at press time, and it was unclear how disruptive the event would ultimately become for U.S. businesses. President Obama asked Congress to allocate $1.5 billion in federal funds to mobilize against it.
