Supplying The World’s Pork

There may not be enough pigs in the world to make up for the losses that China and the rest of Asia is about to suffer from a new outbreak of African swine fever.

소비자 ìš©, it means the price of bacon and other pork products 의지 spike. 나 같은 농부들에게, it means that we’ll continue to focus on doing what is needed to guarantee the health of our animals with strong safety measures.

No one in our global economy is immune to what’s happening. 미국에서, the National Pork Producers Council cancelled this year’s World Pork Expo, a major event that draws thousands of visitors to Iowa.

“We have decided to exercise extreme caution,” said NPPC president David Herring, a pork producer in North Carolina. “The health of the U.S. swine herd is paramount.”

그만큼 latest eruption of African swine fever was first reported last year in China, home to 433 million pigs, the world’s largest population. Some experts estimate that the country could lose up to half of them through mortality and preventative culling. That’s almost the combined size of the pig population에스 에서 유럽 ​​연합 (150 백만) ê³¼ 미국 (73 백만).

What may be the only good news is that our food is safe to eat. African swine fever poses no risk to human health. Although this viral disease can devastate herds of pigs, both on farms and in the wild, it doesn’t transfer to people. There should be no concern to purchase pork to be enjoyed by your family safely.

비록 그렇다 하더라도, the disease presents a huge problem for agriculture. 그것 의지 push up consumer prices, complicate 무역, 과 threaten the livelihoods of pork producers.

Here in the Netherlands, my family earns a living by raising 돼지 고기. 우리는 600 뿌리다 5,600 피니셔 (즉, meat pigs in preparation for the market). Last year we introduced our consumer brand, Hamletz, which is known for its commitment to animal welfare as well as its distinctively good taste, which is partly the result of special feed we grow on our farm. 에 행진, our farm received national recognition as “Agricultural Entrepreneur of the Year 2019.”

African swine fever hasn’t touched our farm and we plan to keep it that way—but we also know that pork producers are vulnerable no matter where they live. The outbreak in China has entered neighboring Vietnam and could spread throughout Southeast Asia. It’s endemic in Russia and parts of Eastern Europe. 지난 9 ì›”, the outbreak was discovered among wild boars in Belgium, 그것은 coming distressingly close to our own operations.

We monitor the health of our herd closely. We take blood samples monthly and veterinarians come by routinely. Because there is a concern that infected pork in feed could be spreading the disease, we are very careful to make sure our pigs are not fed anything that might be questioned. 과 although pigs have a reputation for rolling around in dirt and mud, we insist 의 위에 standards of cleanliness: Visitors to our farm must take showers and wear clothes provided by our farm before we let them see our swine.

If we have a suspicion of disease, we jump into action, 포함 an emergency number to call. The Dutch government is ready to respond with biosafety protocols. In the event of an African swine fever outbreak, our country will divide into regions for the purpose of containment, with a goal of keeping the disease away from uninfected farms.

The one thing we can’t control as well as we’d like is the wild boar population. They’re allowed in only two areas of the Netherlands, but they have a habit of escaping and expanding their territory. 언제 spotted outside of these zones, they should be shot immediately.

Our country has suffered in the past from African swine fever: In the late 1990s, 돼지 고기 생산자 had to reduce 그들의 herd에스 으로 2 million hogs. It took the industry a decade to recover.

This year’s outbreak already has caused pork prices to rise to their highest level in several years. ㅏll signs suggest that they’ll go higher still. This creates an economic opportunity for our farm, and we’ll take advantage of it. Yet we’re wary of disruptions. We’d prefer a stable market with healthy pigs and reliable prices, rather than dramatic fluctuations caused by disease, culling, and the misfortunes of fellow pork producers.

But in agriculture, we know that we can’t always have it our way. So as always, our job is to do our part to keep our 돼지 안전한 and to supply the world with the pork it wants.