Canadian pig herd recovered from PEDv
A 2% increase in the total number of pigs has been reported in the latest Statistics Canada livestock estimate, for January 2015, compared to a year previously. The increase occured despite several outbreaks of PEDv, demonstrating the Canadian herd recovered well from those outbreaks.
The total Canadian herd is now 13.2 million head. According to BPEX, the impact of the PEDv outbreaks in 2014 has been less disruptive than it was in the US and continues to be in Japan and South Korea.
The breeding herd is up marginally on the year, meaning overall productivity is anticipated to grow going forward. So far this has resulted in a 1% increase in the number of piglets on the year, despite PEDv causing a decrease in the first six months of 2014.
Processing capacity may need investment
Although slaughterings were down on the year to 20.5 million head, as more weaners were exported to the US, the number of pigs being kept for slaughter at 1 January 2015 increased by 2%, reaching almost 12 million.
Processing capacity may need investment in order to cope if such annual growth carries on and, with a 5% increase in the heaviest pigs (over 81 kgs) in January, there is an immediate likelihood of an increase in output in the short term. Note that these reported herd increases have had only a limited impact on the longer term trend of declining numbers since 2005.
Join 18,000+ subscribers
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated about all the need-to-know content in the pigsector, three times a week.
