This article offers an honest look at the main infectious diseases affecting pig production today: what they are, what they cost, and why – in an increasingly complex production environment where a significant new disease emerges roughly every decade – investing in proactive disease management makes sound business sense.
Pig farming is one of the world’s most important agricultural sectors. With close to 1.2 billion pigs raised globally in 2024 and pork accounting for roughly one-third of all meat consumed worldwide, the industry underpins food security, rural economies, and international trade on every continent. [1][2][3][4] Yet like every form of livestock production, pig farming faces increasing health challenges – challenges that, when understood clearly and managed well, can be met with confidence. Central to this is improving animal’s resilience to disease. At its core, building disease resilience means equipping pig herds to maintain performance under pathogen pressure – whatever the pathogen – and/or bounce back quickly when challenged. It is the foundation of a pork production system built to last.
A global industry built on expertise and scale
To appreciate why disease resilience matters, it helps to understand the scale of what the pork industry has built. Global pork production is expected to reach approximately 117 million metric tons in 2026,[5] and the market value of the sector is estimated at 250–300 billion USD, with projections suggesting it will exceed 400 billion USD by the end of this decade.[4] Asia leads in production, accounting for 57% of the global herd, with China alone home to around 427 million pigs in 2025.[8]
Behind these numbers lies a sophisticated value chain – connecting breeders, producers, processors, distributors, retailers, and billions of consumers. This chain has been built through decades of investment, expertise, and collaboration. Managing animal health effectively is simply part of running it well.
Today's disease landscape
Different types of disease affect today’s operations. Category A diseases – such as African Swine Fever (ASF) – are highly contagious and can spread rapidly across regions and national borders. They are relatively rare in any given operation, but when they do occur, their consequences will be severe: movement restrictions, market closures, and in some cases, mass depopulation.
Other farm diseases can also impact production. These diseases typically receive less attention than dramatic outbreak events from category A diseases, but their cumulative impact on profitability is substantial. These diseases are constantly present in affected herds or regions, quietly eroding performance through impaired growth and feed efficiency, reduced reproductive efficiency, and increased susceptibility to secondary infections.
Among the diseases affecting today’s global pig production, the most significant includes:
- African Swine Fever (ASF) is the most discussed example. With mortality rates approaching 100% and no global vaccine currently available for broad commercial use, ASF rightly commands attention from producers and policymakers alike. Its spread across Europe and Asia over the past decade has demonstrated how quickly it can cross borders and disrupt trade.[17]
- Classical Swine Fever (CSF) – also known as Hog Cholera – shares some of these characteristics, as it is highly transmissible, although effective vaccines do exist and it is now controlled or eradicated in many regions through coordinated national programs.
- Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) is the most economically significant endemic disease in many pig-producing countries. The virus mutates frequently, which complicates vaccination strategies. [9][10]
- Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) causes severe diarrhea and dehydration and is particularly dangerous in young piglets.
- Swine Influenza, meanwhile, moves rapidly through herds and, while rarely fatal on its own, it weakens animals and creates conditions for more serious secondary infections and disease impact.
It is important to keep perspective here. These diseases create serious challenges for affected farms and regions, but their impact can be uneven. During the PED outbreak in the United States in 2013-2014, for example, producers who maintained healthy herds found themselves operating in a market with reduced supply and historically strong prices. Effective disease management – whether through biosecurity, genetics, or management – can create real competitive advantage precisely because not every farm is equally affected.
What disease really costs
The economic cost of swine diseases
The economic impact of swine diseases is often summarized in large headline figures. PRRS alone is estimated to cost the US swine industry approximately 1.2 billion USD per year – a figure that has grown by roughly 80% over the past decade as the virus and its impact have evolved. [11] The ASF outbreak in China between 2018 and 2021 resulted in direct economic losses estimated at well over 100 billion USD and, at its peak, reduced the national herd by close to half. [17] PEDv outbreak in the United States in 2013 has been estimated to has cost between 900 million and 1.8 billion USD in annual losses. [18]
At farm level, the PRRS numbers are equally instructive. In Spain, PRRS outbreaks have been estimated to cost around 200 USD per sow or approximately 20 USD per finishing pig. [14] Canadian modelling suggests PRRS losses of roughly 500 USD per sow per year in affected operations, with per-pig feed and health costs rising by several dollars. [16] Mexican research indicates that PRRS can increase the cost per weaned piglet by around 10% and daily finishing costs by approximately 15%. [13]
These losses flow through multiple pathways:
- Direct costs include mortality, culling, carcass disposal, enhanced biosecurity, veterinary care, and additional labor.
- Indirect costs – often larger in aggregate – include poorer feed conversion, extended days to market, reduced growth rates, lower reproductive performance, and compromised meat quality. For operations that rely on export markets, the trade restrictions that can accompany disease events add another layer of financial exposure. [12][15]
Beyond economics: environmental and social dimensions
The impact of disease management extends beyond the balance sheet.
Social and Supply Chains Disruptions
- For the people who work on farms, health outbreaks bring their own particular pressures. Managing the physical and logistical demands of an outbreak response, and living with economic uncertainty creates real psychological strain, in an industry that already faces labor challenges.
- At a broader societal level, disease disruptions affect the availability and affordability of protein, with the greatest consequences in lower-income countries where pork represents an important and accessible food and protein source. Consumer confidence in food safety, while rarely affected in scientific terms by swine diseases, can be shaken by media coverage of outbreaks – with effects that persist well beyond the outbreak itself.
Environmental concerns
- The increased use of antibiotic treatments can contribute to antimicrobial resistance and environmental pollution. Additionally, when diseased animals convert feed inefficiently, the environmental cost of every kilogram of pork produced rises accordingly.
Why disease management is more important than ever
One aspect of the disease challenge that deserves discussion is the ongoing emergence of new pathogens and the increasing incidence rate of disease. Data compiled before 2020 already suggested that one new or re-emerging infectious disease was appearing globally approximately every eight months, and that the overall rate of emergence had been accelerating since the 1940s. [19] The swine industry has historically seen a significant new disease emerging approximately every 10 to 15 years.
Several interconnected factors drive this trend.
- Higher animal densities, while economically necessary in modern production, create conditions in which pathogens can spread more rapidly.
- International trade and the movement of live animals, feed, and people across borders means that a disease emerging in one region can reach another within days.
- Deforestation and habitat loss bring livestock and humans into closer contact with wildlife, increasing the likelihood of pathogen spillover in different regions of the world, between different animals and between animals and humans (zoonosis).
- Climate Change: warmer temperatures and expanded habitats for vectors like mosquitoes and ticks increase the spread of vector-borne diseases.
- Pathogens – such as PRRS – mutate continuously, meaning that yesterday’s vaccine or control strategy may not be fully effective against tomorrow’s variant.
Understanding these drivers is not cause for alarm – it is the foundation for building management systems that are robust enough to handle an increasingly complex environment and an uncertain future.
Managing disease, building resilience: the path forward
The pork industry already deploys a substantial toolkit of disease management strategies: international collaboration, biosecurity measures, herd management, vaccination programs, and targeted treatments among others, have long formed the backbone of disease control, and they remain essential.
As the production environment is getting increasingly complex and as disease pressures grow, driven by interconnected factors, so do their consequences and the need for this toolkit to evolve, deepening the need for a collective, proactive, and holistic approach, anticipating of what is yet to come.
Among the innovations strengthening that toolkit, genetics is emerging as a particularly foundational layer, as genetic selection could strengthen the pig itself – building inherent disease resilience against any pathogen that is cumulative, heritable, and applicable across diverse production systems worldwide.
In essence, the path forward is proactive, layered, and collaborative – grounded in established veterinary practice and health management, supported by industry-wide partnership, and reinforced by genetic improvement that builds resilience from the inside out.
References
1. USDA Data, 2024
2. OECD Data . Meat consumption [Internet] Paris, France: OECD; c2023.
3. AHDB. (2025). Long-term pork consumption trends to 2033.
4. Research and Markets. (2023). Global Pork Market Size & Forecast 2023-2028.
5. USDA Data
6. FAO. (2024). Meat Market Review: Emerging trends and outlook.
7. Grand View Research. (2024). Pork Meat Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report.
8. Statista. (2024). Number of pigs worldwide by country.
9. Holtkamp, D. J., et al. (2013). Economic impact of PRRS in the United States.
11. Holtkamp, D. (2024). Growing losses from PRRS cost pork producers $1.2 billion a year.
13. Valdes-Donoso, P., et al. (2021). Productive performance and costs of swine farms with PRRS.
14. Boeters, M., et al. (2023). Economic impact of endemic respiratory disease in pigs.
15. PRRS Control Center. (2018–2024). PRRS economic impact resources.
16. Alberta Pork. (2024). PRRS economic modeling.
17. FAO/WOAH. (Various). ASF outbreak reports: China 2018–2021.
18. Paarlberg, Philip, 2014. “Updated Estimated Economic Welfare Impacts Of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (Pedv),” Working papers 174517, Purdue University, Department of Agricultural Economics.