“The U.S. Grains Council remembers the 1960 ‘hog lift’ to Japan as our founding event,” said Council President and CEO Tom Sleight, “and still today, anything that hurts hogs hurts many of our oldest and best customers around the world. The current swine epidemic is a serious matter for many of them, and therefore for us.”

The global outbreak of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) is hammering hog producers around the world. In the United States alone, the disease has killed approximately 5 million piglets to date. PEDv has been endemic in Asia and Europe for decades but had never been found in the United States until last year, so the current epidemic is a first for U.S. farmers.In the Western Hemisphere, the disease is also spreading rapidly in Canada, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Peru. Asian countries including Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and China have been hit hard as well.

Again this week, industry contacts in Japan, Taiwan and Mexico expressed growing concern about economic losses to farmers, potential shortages and higher prices. Ordinarily the United States, as the world’s largest pork exporter, could step up exports to fill a shortage, but the emergence of PEDv in the United States will cut into American production as well. Consumers are already seeing the impact.

“Markets will adjust while this is being contained,” Sleight said, “and other sectors, especially poultry, will fill the gap. We don’t anticipate a major effect on feed grains. But we have been in contact with our good customers, some of whom are facing very significant losses, to let them know that we understand the problem, and will be there to help them rebuild.”