SPECIAL REPORT: As if animal agriculture wasn’t rife enough with animal exploitation, a report by the Guardian has placed a spotlight on a little-known link between farms across Europe and the UK and so-called “blood farms” where horse hormones are harvested. Claire Hamlett discusses.

Iceland’s small wild horses are world-renowned. With their hardiness and distinctive fifth gait, the horses are a beloved feature of the country’s rugged landscapes. But they are also being used to supply hormones to animal farmers in Europe and the UK, with blood taken from pregnant mares on “blood farms” over the summers. New undercover footage shared with the Guardian by animal welfare campaigners has revealed horses apparently being abused and struggling in distress against restraints, adding to mounting pressure on the Icelandic government to ban the practice.

Around 5,000 of Iceland’s 80,000 horses are used as “blood mares” across 119 farms, some of which are owned or subcontracted by pharmaceutical company Isteka. The pregnant horses are kept in stalls while a tube is inserted into their jugular veins to extract five litres of blood every week for eight weeks in a row, according to the Guardian’s report. The Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority (MAST) said that there was no sign that taking such volumes of blood was bad for the horses or their foals, but an Icelandic vet contradicted the claim.

A peer-reviewed paper published in 2019 that reviewed the welfare issues that arise at horse blood farms states: “There are no international or industry guidelines or recommendations for blood collection from pregnant mares and the amount collected and the schedule of collection are highly variable between farms. In addition, some farms choose to abort the mares after day 90 of gestation, since pregnancy is not needed at that point for continued eCG* production. This allows farms to rebreed mares such that two eCG production cycles are achieved each year, instead of one. On farms in which foals are raised, foals may be sold or sent for slaughter, depending on the country and breed of horse being used for eCG production.”

*Equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG), or pregnant mare serum gonadotropin (PMSG) hormone.

After activists in Iceland first uncovered conditions at the blood farms in November 2021, Eurogroup for Animals noted that as the foals are a by-product they usually end up in the slaughterhouse. The group further noted that the production of PMSG has tripled since 2009 and has become a lucrative business for pharmaceutical companies. In January, Iceland’s Environment Agency renewed Isteka’s license to use up to 600 tons of blood from mares to produce up to 20kg a year of pharmaceutical ingredients. The license is valid for the next 16 years - until 2038 - however it only covers the manufacturing of PMSG products and not the production at blood farms. MAST is the agency responsible for overseeing the laws regarding the welfare of the horses and is also in charge of granting licenses to companies like Isteka.

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The mares’ blood is used to extract pregnant mare serum gonadotropin (PMSG) hormone, also known as equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG), which can be administered to farmed animals to boost their reproduction. The Guardian reports that 6.4 million single doses of PMSG were given to breeding sows between 2016 and 2019. In the UK, PMSG products can be bought on prescription from registered vets. Its use on Britain’s breeding sows is minimal, according to the National Pig Association and the Pig Veterinary Society. It is used in products such as ‘vaginal sponges’ for sheep in order to breed them out of season or to increase the amount of lambs a ewe has, which UK farmers are encouraged to do by the industry. It is also used on cows: the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) has a guide instructing farmers that PMSG is good for using on cows who are too thin or young to have a normal reproductive cycle

In March, 17 NGOs submitted a complaint to the European Free Trade Association accusing Iceland of breaking European law by taking more blood from the mares than is permitted. The complaint argues that extracting blood from the mares falls under using the animals for scientific purposes/experiments and that  “blood collection for the production of PMSG should not be approved by the Icelandic authorities as it does not respect the principle of the 3 Rs (replacement, reduction and refinement) on which is based the relevant EU Directive, and thus the Icelandic law, on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes.” Icelandic authorities disagree that these count as animals used in experiments.

Though the European Commission said it is “seriously concerned” about the treatment of the horses on the blood farms, it also said it “cannot impose its animal welfare standards on third countries” and seeks dialogue with Iceland instead to “improve the welfare conditions” of the horses. 

Blood farms that supply the EU livestock industry also exist in Argentina and Uruguay, where the mares were discovered in 2015 to be subjected to extreme abuse and trauma. While some European pharmaceutical companies have since stopped buying PMSG from South America, others continue to do so even though the horses apparently continue to be violently abused.

Icelanders quoted in the Guardian have expressed their shock and disgust at discovering the existence of blood farms in their country. Public and political pressure to ban the blood farms is growing, with the opposition People’s party having introduced a bill in the Icelandic parliament calling for a ban. It is awaiting a vote.

Claire Hamlett is a freelance journalist, writer and regular contributor at Surge. Based in Oxford, UK, Claire tells stories that challenge systemic exploitation of and disregard for animals and the environment and that point to a better way of doing things.

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