A media event at World Pork Expo sponsored by Fort Dodge Animal Health gave the outlook in several different areas for hog producers – the market, H1N1 and control of Porcine Circovirus Type 2 (PCV2).
It goes without saying that the market outlook is pretty dismal. University of Missouri professor emeritus Glenn Grimes summarized his forecast simply. “Farrows trending down, continued productivity growth, fewer imports of Canadian hogs and pigs, decrease in pork exports, weak domestic demand, high feed costs, red ink for producers – and the bottom line is we have to reduce the herd five percent minimum and maybe ten.”
Download or listen to some of Dr. Grimes remarks here: Glenn Grimes
Dr. Greg Stevenson with the Iowa State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory discussed swine influenza testing and USDA surveillance for swine flu. It was a pretty technical presentation that detailed the genetic difference between the H1N1 virus in humans and in swine. “When the USDA is going to be talking about surveillance, they’re going to be calling it H1N1 Flu Outbreak Virus (FOV), trying to distinguish it from the H1N1 that is in the swine population now in the U.S.,” said Dr. Stevenson. “We’ve got to talk about it intelligently and we’ve got to be careful to distinguish the two for the sake of the swine industry.” To talk intelligently about it, he says we’re all going to have to become virologists, and he proceeded to give a crash course in virology in 25 minutes. Learn more here. wpx09-stevenson.mp3
On the PCV2 control front, there is some good news for producers. Dr. Joe Connor, president of Carthage Veterinary Service, gave an update on PCV2 vaccines. Specifically, he talked about the efficacy of Suvaxyn PCV2 One Dose from Fort Dodge Animal Health. “We’ve had very high success with the vaccines in all the studies,” he reported. “We’ve shown in all of the studies that we are comfortable vaccinating with singe dose vaccines such as Suvaxyn at 3 or 5 weeks of age.” The studies done in commercial herds in the United States, Europe, Japan and New Zealand all indicated that Suvaxyn significantly reduced total mortality rate and improved growth performance. Nice to hear some positive news for pork producers!
Listen to Dr. Connor’s summary here. wpx09-connor.mp3 Download here: Joe Connor
Attendance was down a bit at World Pork Expo this year due primarily to the impact of the H1N1 virus or “swine flu,” which kept away many international visitors who would normally attend. Washing and sanitizing of hands was stressed more than normal and the flu was a topic of press conferences, media interviews and general conversation.
As we all know, the “epidemic” started in Mexico, and I talked with Jorge Gonzalez, Novus International sales manager for northern Latin America, about the impact it has had on the pork industry in Mexico. “The name of the virus, swine flu, affected the consumption in Mexico,” Jorge said. “Consumption decreased 30 percent so the pork producers are in a very bad situation.” Like the U.S., Mexico has also been impacted by restrictions on pork imports from North America imposed by China and Russia.
Seriously, what would a pork expo be without racing pigs? While World Pork Expo is a serious event for producers who want to find out the latest information about their industry, it’s also a family event with fun stuff like pig races. 
Dr. Laura Greiner, who does research for Innovative Swine Solutions and 
On the production side, we heard from Kathy Chinn with Chinn Hog Farm in northeast Missouri. Kathy is a former Missouri state representative who is very active in the agriculture and pork industry on both the state and national level and a real positive voice and face for agriculture. It was very interesting to hear her talk about their family operation, which includes her two sons and her grandchildren, and how they faced the challenges of farming in their community and grown better because of it. She is a strong advocate of telling agriculture’s story and being involved on a community level – and she is really a neat, impressive and interesting lady.
A packed house gathered within the historic walls of the Kansas City Club, May 22, 2009, to celebrate four of the region’s most inspiring business leaders being honored by The Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City. The 2009 Award for Agricultural Leadership and Excellence, named in honor of the late Jay B. Dillingham, was awarded to R. Crosby Kemper, Jr., UMB Financial Corporation; Joerg Ohle, Bayer Animal Health and Morton Sosland, Sosland Publishing for outstanding contributions to agricultural and food related businesses. The Outstanding Volunteer of the Year went to Gina Bowman, CVR Energy.
Another simply gorgeous day for the World Pork Expo. Today is the last day for the event – a change from previous years. The expo used to start on Thursday and end Saturday afternoon, shortly before judging of the