Blood farms: from Iceland to Italy and Parma ham – Voxeurop

Taken from the blood of pregnant mares, PMSG typically costs around €1m per 100 grams, making it one of the most expensive powders on the planet. The hormone is purchased by pharmaceutical companies throughout Europe to produce various veterinary medicines that are then prescribed for use on farms. They are especially popular on pig farms, where they are used to stimulate the fertility of sows.

What is PMSG?

Also known as eCG (equine chorionic gonadotropin), PMSG is also used to induce ovulation in cattle, sheep and goats. The vast majority of the hormone distributed in Europe is sourced from so-called “blood farms” scattered across Iceland.

Uruguay and Argentina used to be the main suppliers of PMSG for European pharmaceutical companies. That began to change after 2015, when Animal Welfare Foundation (AWF) in Germany and its Swiss partner Tierschutzbund Zurich (TSB), both animal rights charities, conducted a series of investigations revealing the atrocious conditions on blood farms. The investigations generated intense media coverage, leading four of five European pharmaceutical companies producing medicines containing PMSG at the time to stop supplying the hormone from South America. 

Rather than kill the industry, however, the move simply led PMSG production to shift to Iceland: a further investigation conducted by TSB and AWF between 2019 and 2021 located 119 blood farms in Iceland at the time.

During the summer months, vets on blood farms extract up to five litres of blood from pregnant mares every week. The animals are also badly mistreated. “Mares are hit with sticks and put in tiny pens, while cannulae are inserted in an unprofessional manner, causing pain, stress, fear and panic,” Sonny Richichi, president of the Italian Horses Protection Onlus association, said in an interview.

As the mares only produce PMSG when they are pregnant, breeders repeatedly carry out forced abortions in efforts to gather as much of the hormone as possible. Around 30% of horses present on the farms die, many of them of malnutrition. Of the few foals that are born, the males are sent to slaughter and the females, like their mothers, are used for blood extraction.

What is Europe doing?

In 2021, the European Parliament asked the Commission to ban the import of PMSG, citing the EU’s directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes (2010/63), which states that animal experiments should be replaced by alternative methods wherever possible.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) encourages using alternatives rather than animals when testing medicines, both for human and veterinary use. According to the EU’s “European Directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes” (2010/63), animal experiments must be replaced by non-animal alternatives wherever possible.

According to Germany’s agriculture ministry, there are 36 synthetic alternatives to pharmaceuticals containing PMSG available on the market in that country. 

AWF therefore argues that blood does not need to be extracted from mares to produce PMSG.

In May 2023, the EFTA (European Free Trade Association Surveillance Authority) formally asked the Icelandic government to correctly apply Directive 2010/63 to extracting blood from mares, claiming that the country’s 2022 national regulation on the practice “further enhanced the legal uncertainty governing the blood collection from pregnant mares and failed to ensure the effectiveness of Directive 2010/63”.

The Icelandic government conceded in September that drawing blood from mares violates the directive and, in November, revoked the country’s national regulation on blood collection, which dated from 2022.

As a result, Directive 2010/63 applies to blood collection as of 1 November 2023.

“The open acknowledgement that a country has been in breach of Directive 2010/63/EU paves the way to an EU-wide ban on PMSG production, importation, and use. This is likely to prepare for similar measures worldwide,” the International Federation of Icelandic Horse Associations (FEIF) said in a statement.

Next, the Icelandic government will decide whether or not to authorise the practice of PMSG extraction, by assessing the feasibility of using a scientifically effective method that does not involve live animals.

The government has until 2025 to decide.

Following the decision, Isteka, the company that owns Iceland’s blood farms, has vowed to continue extracting the blood. 

The company appears keen to avoid loss of revenue through a ban on the extraction of blood. Isteka, which the European Commission recently described as the “European market leader in gonadotropin powder”, recorded sales of €11.4m in 2022, the last year for which figures are available.

Parma Ham

PMSG is used in the vast majority of intensive pig breeding farms in Italy, allowing farmers to save time and money.

The present investigation, which has already led to articles in two other publications, shows that PMSG is an integral part of the supply chain of Italian pork products. These include Parma Ham, a prized delicacy that the Parma Ham Consortium, which represents the approximately 130 certified ham producers, markets as an “exemplary” product containing neither preservatives nor additives.

The investigation has already sparked controversy in the United Kingdom, the main export market for Parma ham before Brexit, with some animal welfare associations calling on supermarkets to remove products made using the hormone from their shelves.

“All UK retailers and food companies should commit to sourcing only products from suppliers with a higher standard of animal welfare […] this practice, the cause of immense suffering,” said Dr Sarah Ison, global head of research at Compassion in World Farming (CWF), in an interview.

Sabrina Gurtner, project manager for TSB and AWF’s investigations on PMSG, said in an interview: “Supermarkets should prohibit the use of PMSG in their meat supply chains […] If their suppliers refuse to stop using PMSG, then the consequence should be to stop the import”.

So where does Italy stand?

The Italian government has not responded to numerous questions from parliamentarians and journalists on the use of PMSG.

Prior to the current investigation, in a bipartisan parliamentary question in April 2021, MPs Michela Vittoria Brambilla (Forza Italia), Patrizia Prestipino (Pd) and Manfredi Potenti (Lega) asked whether the health ministry was aware of alternative drugs available on the market. “We are still waiting for an answer,” Prestipino told us in November 2023.

We asked the health ministry to provide an up-to-date list of drugs containing PMSG that are authorised in Italy, making the request through a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA). The ministry has not responded.

However, two official online veterinary manuals managed respectively by the Health Ministry and the National Association of Health Enterprises (AISA), an organisation representing pharmaceutical companies in Italy, show that six drugs containing PMSG are authorised for sale. When consulted in November 2023, two of them – PG600 and Folligon, produced by MSD in Germany (a subsidiary of the American Merck) – were available for purchase.

Four other drugs – Fixplan (produced by the Argentinian company Syntex), Gestavet and Oviser (both produced by the Spanish company Hipra) and Fertipig (by the French company Ceva Santé Animale) – were not available at the time.

We also obtained a list of more than 4,000 farms in northern and central Italy that supply Parma ham producers in Italy. Of 100 farmers contacted, only 5 per cent agreed to answer our questions. All reported having used PG600, and one even said he had used four of the drugs listed.

A spokesperson for Prosciutto di Parma told us: “The Prosciutto di Parma Consortium brings together and represents only Parma ham producers, i.e. 133 companies […] who purchase the raw material (the fresh leg) for the purpose of processing it”. The spokesperson declined to comment on the use of PMSG on farms, explaining: “The Consortium does not represent and does not include, among its members, any farms”.

The case of Parma Ham is just one example of an entire industry that is heavily dependent on these products.

First used in Italy in the 1960s, pharmaceuticals containing PMSG are now commonplace on the vast majority of the country’s approximately 16,000 intensive pig breeding farms (out of a total of about 25,000 intensive pig farms, according Health Ministry data), a representative of a major national veterinary association, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told us.

The statement was confirmed by two other veterinarians we contacted.

According to Gurtner at TSB, using the hormone is also common practice in Germany, Spain and Poland.

The international prestige of the Italian ham giant and its worldwide reputation for quality (a third of the 7.9 million legs produced in 2022 were sold abroad) could help improve awareness about how cruelty to animals fueled by the PMSG industry is connected to the food they eat.

“It’s misleading that this so-called premium product has less-than-premium welfare behind it,” said Sarah Ison of CWF about Prosciutto di Parma. “I think people would be shocked if they knew what was really happening to the animals, and might boycott the products.”

While some large UK supermarkets have claimed there is no link between Parma Ham and PMSG, others have promised to investigate further. “We take animal welfare extremely seriously,” said Marks & Spencer, the well-known British multinational known for its quality food. “[We] are looking into this issue with our suppliers.”