XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: amd@immigration.com   
      
   The bodies are piling up fast.   
      
   A deadly virus, porcine epidemic diarrhea, or PEDv, is estimated   
   to have killed, on average, more than 100,000 piglets and young   
   hogs each week since it first showed up in Iowa in May 2013,   
   wreaking havoc on the pork industry.   
      
   The number of hogs slaughtered this year is down 4.2 percent,   
   according to the United States Agriculture Department, to   
   roughly 50 million from more than 52 million in the same period   
   in 2013.   
      
   That drop drove up the price of bacon and center-cut pork chops   
   sold in the United States by more than 12 percent in May,   
   compared with the same period a year ago, according to the   
   Bureau of Labor Statistics. Prices for bacon rose more than 15   
   percent, and pork chops were up almost 13 percent.   
      
   “I’ve been a vet since 1981, and there is no precedent for   
   this,” said Paul Sundberg, vice president for science and   
   technology at the National Pork Board. “It is devastatingly   
   virulent.”   
      
   The fatality numbers are so staggering that environmentalists   
   have grown worried about the effects of state laws requiring the   
   burial of so many carcasses, and what that will do to the   
   groundwater.   
      
   “We know there is a lot of mortality from this disease, and   
   we’re seeing evidence of burial in areas with shallow   
   groundwater that a lot of people rely on for drinking water and   
   recreation,” said Kelly Foster, senior lawyer at the Waterkeeper   
   Alliance, an environmental group.   
      
   Waterkeeper has asked the North Carolina Department of   
   Agriculture and Consumer Services to put a mass disposal plan   
   into effect, and wants it to declare a state of emergency. On   
   its website and YouTube, the organization has posted photos of   
   dead piglets barely covered with earth and boxes overflowing   
   with the bodies of young pigs, although it is unclear whether   
   all were victims of the virus.   
      
   Steven W. Troxler, the state’s agricultural commissioner, has so   
   far declined to seek an emergency declaration, saying in a   
   letter to Waterkeeper that he thought existing disposal systems,   
   including composting and the shipping of carcasses to rendering   
   facilities, were up to the challenge. “We are not aware of any   
   published scientific data that indicates any groundwater   
   contamination as a result of PEDv,” according to the letter,   
   which Mr. Troxler wrote in March.   
      
   Some of the huge hog operations in North Carolina have become   
   ensnared in disputes over aerial photographing of farms, some of   
   it unrelated to the spread of the virus, and industry officials   
   have expressed concerns about the practice as well.   
      
   Three state lawmakers had proposed a bill that effectively would   
   require state agencies to keep under lock and key any aerial   
   photographs of agricultural operations that include global   
   positioning coordinates. The move echoed an effort by United   
   States Senator Mike Johanns, Republican of Nebraska, to impose a   
   yearlong moratorium on the Environmental Protection Agency’s   
   taking of aerial photographs of cattle feedlots and farming   
   operations to monitor compliance with the Clean Water Act.   
      
   Mr. Johanns’s amendment, attached to a recent appropriations   
   bill, was altered to require the E.P.A. to give the Senate more   
   information about its aerial photography program.   
      
   Last summer, George Steinmetz, a photographer working for   
   National Geographic, was arrested in Kansas under the state’s   
   “ag gag” law after using a paraglider to take photographs of   
   cattle feedlots and other agricultural operations for an article   
   on the food industry.   
      
   Precisely how many pigs have died from the virus, which causes   
   acute diarrhea that is virtually 100 percent lethal for piglets   
   two to three weeks old, is unknown. The Agriculture Department   
   did not require reporting of the disease until June 5, and it   
   does not collect data on how many pigs the virus has killed,   
   instead referring the question to the hog industry — which does   
   not like to talk about it.   
      
   The National Pork Producers Council does not have a figure of   
   its own but said it had heard that about eight million pigs had   
   died of PEDv so far.   
      
   The U.S.D.A. said that as of May 28, nearly 7,000 samples   
   submitted from 30 states to labs tested positive for the virus.   
   Since May, there have been reports of pigs afflicted with the   
   virus in a 31st state. “We do know that it is a particularly   
   persistent virus, and it can survive long periods in less-than-   
   ideal environments,” Joelle Hayden, a department spokeswoman,   
   wrote in an email.   
      
   Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently pledged $26.2 million   
   for a variety of efforts to fight the virus, including   
   development of a vaccine. The largest amount, $11.1 million, is   
   to be allocated to helping hog producers with infected herds   
   enhance their biosecurity practices.   
      
   The money is badly needed. In an illustration of how   
   indiscriminate the disease is, the virus was found in Vermont in   
   March on a traditional farm with a small drift of pigs raised   
   largely on pasture. “I was not as surprised as one might think,”   
   said Dr. Kristin Haas, the state veterinarian. “Even though in   
   Vermont and most of the Northeast we don’t have the same type of   
   commercial swine operations that you find in Iowa and North   
   Carolina, there is still a tremendous amount of livestock moving   
   in and out of the state.”   
      
   Michael Yezzi, proprietor of Flying Pigs Farm just across the   
   border in New York State, said farmers suspected that the virus   
   arrived on a truck from Pennsylvania. “It’s a very big concern   
   because we have young stock on the farm, piglets born on the   
   farm and piglets brought in from regional breeders,” Mr. Yezzi   
   said. “We have to make sure the farms we’re working with don’t   
   have it, because it’s going to kill everything under a certain   
   age.   
      
   “Nobody wants to lose 10 to 20 percent of their yearly supply of   
   pigs, whether that would be 150 for someone like me or 15,000   
   for someone in Iowa.”   
      
   Prevention is no mean feat. At the Hord Livestock Company in   
   north-central Ohio, for instance, trucks returning from feed   
   deliveries are cleaned and disinfected and then the trailers are   
   baked to 160 degrees for 10 minutes. Drivers wear disposable   
   bootees, and farm supervisors are not allowed to travel between   
   Hord’s farms.   
      
   And yet the company has just finished the four- to five-month   
   process of eliminating the virus from one of its farms and is   
   working to disinfect another and build up its sows’ immunity so   
   they can pass it on to their piglets in their colostrum. The two   
   farms had different strains of the virus, one more deadly than   
   the other.   
      
   Pat Hord, whose family owns the business, would not say how many   
   of its animals died from PEDv. “Even though the economic hit is   
   definitely significant, it’s probably the emotional side that’s   
   the worst of it for me and my family and the team here,” Mr.   
   Hord said. “All we do every day is take care of the animals the   
   best that we can, but there’s nothing you can do for them when   
   this disease hits — it’s out of your control.”   
      
      
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