Flu hits as U.S. hog industry struggling to recover

By Bob Burgdorfer

CHICAGO (Reuters) - For America's hog producers, "swine flu" could not have come at a worse time.

Pork producers have been losing money since late 2007, hit first by record high feed prices and later by a recession that hurt demand for hogs and pork.

The flu -- which has no connection to pigs other than containing swine flu genetic sequences -- triggered bans on U.S. pork and caused hog prices to fall about 10 percent this week.

On Thursday, the World Health Organization dropped the swine flu name in favor of the less prejudicial Influenza A H1N1. But the damage has been done, hog producers said.

"I wish it had been done before. You can't put the genie back in the bottle," said Richard Ellinghuysen, vice president of Omaha-based Producers Livestock.

Hog producers had been looking forward to profits this spring and summer for the first time in 19 months due to a smaller herd and less pork production, but this week's sudden drop in hog prices caused by the flu dimmed those chances.

Shares of Smithfield Foods Inc, the largest U.S. hog and pork producer, were down 16 percent for the week as bans on the pork imports and lower hog prices worried investors.

The flu has killed up to 176 in Mexico, sickened dozens more in the United States and around the world. It is transmitted by humans, not by hogs or pork.