Published: May 06, 2009 01:45 pm      

Indiana hog farmers brace for effects of swine flu

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana hog farmers are stepping up health protection measures and bracing for the impact of swine flu on an already struggling industry.

Purdue University agricultural economist Chris Hurt says Indiana hog farmers have been losing money every quarter for the last year and a half, and it’s gotten worse since the swine flu scare hit a few weeks ago.

Hurt estimated Indiana hog producers were losing about $5 a head on April 24; he said that number is now $20. Hurt estimates that in the week after the swine flu outbreak, the United States pork industry lost about $30 million.

Hurt says he expected prices farmers received at the market to bounce back this week amid assurances by the Agriculture Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that pork was safe to consume. But that hasn’t been the case.

Hurt says he suspects the news Monday that the swine flu was transmitted to pigs in Canada shook consumer and market confidence.

In Alberta, Canada, officials quarantined about 220 pigs infected by a worker who recently returned from Mexico. It was the first documented case of the H1N1 virus being passed from a human to another species. Canada stressed that pigs often get the flu and there is no danger in eating pork.