IATP Hog Report - Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Section 2
swine operations could be maintained at an intensive level.
It is likely that weaning age would be increased. Inventory
would be reduced, more labor and time would be required
to thoroughly clean and disinfect between groups of pigs,
and the breeding herd efficiency would be reduced to
conform to calendarized farrowings. In the long run,
because of the increased cost of operating confinement
units, a reversion to extensive or pasture production could
take place. The seasonal nature of extensive production
would mean large month to month variability in
marketings reminiscent of historical patterns and would be
disruptive for today's packing industry.
http://www.iatp.org/hogreport/sec2.html (19 of 38)2/27/2006 3:50:06 AM
The NAS/NRC panel advised against banning the prophylactic and growthpromoting
use of antibiotics in animal feeds. The NAS/NRC group
concluded that the costs of removing antibiotics from animal feeds would
exceed the benefits. 139
In a U.S. study, bacteria from participating hog farms where antibiotic use
was limited had significantly lower incidence of resistance than bacteria
from control farms where antibiotics were routinely used at subtherapeutic
levels in the feed. 140 Another U.S. study, by Wade and Barkley, 141
concluded that both consumers and hog producers would receive slight,
overall net benefits from a ban on feed-grade antibiotics due to an increase
in pork demand, which would result from consumer perceptions of safer
meat offsetting increased production costs.
In Sweden, post-ban production costs have been only slightly higher than
pre-ban costs, due in part to improved animal health and Swedish farmers'
innovative approaches. 142
Consumers in Sweden have been willing to pay the slightly higher price
needed for Swedish farmers to produce meat and poultry products without
growth promoting and prophylactic antibiotic use. 143
A 1999 Iowa State University (ISU) study estimated the economic impact
of a ban on the use of over-the-counter antibiotics in the United States. 144
The authors estimated outcomes from three different scenarios over a tenyear
period from 2000 to 2010. Under all three scenarios, costs to both
hog producers and pork consumers increased. Under the most likely
scenario, the authors estimated that such a ban would add 5.2 cents to the
retail price of a pound of pork and would cost the farmer an additional
$6.05 per market hog to produce in the first year of the ban and $5.24 per
hog by the end of the projected ten-year period. The authors projected a
$1.039 billion decline in present value of the industry over the 10-year
period. This was the sum of "foregone" profits over 10 years on hogs