18/12/2025
There are practices that, even when exposed, seem impervious to time. The production of PMSG/eCG—pregnant mare serum gonadotropin—is one of them: a system built on the suffering of thousands of animals, serving a model of intensive farming that seeks to “optimize” reproduction by turning life itself into an economic variable.
It is within this context that a new, formal appeal addressed to the European Commission brings the issue back to the center of the political agenda. In a letter dated 18 December 2025 and addressed to European Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi, the Hungarian politician holding the Community portfolio for Health and Animal Welfare, Animal Welfare Foundation (AWF) and Tierschutzbund Zürich (TSB)—together with a broad coalition of international organizations, including Italian Horse Protection (IHP) representing Italy—urgently call for a ban on PMSG.
PMSG is a natural hormone extracted from the blood of pregnant mares and used to manufacture veterinary pharmaceuticals primarily for intensive livestock farming, especially pig production, with the aim of synchronizing and accelerating reproductive cycles. IHP has denounced this mechanism for years, defining it as a “double torture”: for the mares subjected to blood extraction and for the animals in intensive farms that are subjected to further production pressures.
The investigation conducted in Argentina and Uruguay between 2023 and 2025 documents a scenario that is already well known, yet no less disturbing: more than 10,000 mares exploited, with blood withdrawals of up to 10 liters per week for approximately 11 weeks; violent handling; inadequate access to water, nutrition, and shelter; injured or debilitated animals left without care; and abortions carried out as a routine practice to “reuse” the mares within the same breeding season.
The script of the so-called “blood farms,” as IHP has repeatedly written, remains dramatically unchanged despite promises, audits, and manuals—a system that continues to operate because it continues to find a market.
A particularly sensitive issue concerns the reconstruction—reported by the NGOs—of the commercial strategy that would allow PMSG to reach the European market “through the back door,” via a corporate structure based in Ireland and national authorizations in several Member States for the distribution of the product Fixplan. According to the associations, this effectively circumvents the incompatibility of such practices with European animal welfare standards.
IHP had already intervened on Fixplan in 2021, calling on Italian institutions to block authorizations and the trade of pharmaceuticals produced using the blood of pregnant mares, drawing attention to the ethical and regulatory dimensions of the issue.
Within the European institutional debate, one element is now established: the Commission has tasked EFSA with producing a scientific opinion on equine welfare in the production of gonadotropin, expected in 2026. IHP has acknowledged this as a sign of movement, but has also stressed how unacceptable it is to postpone action yet again: IHP has documented the issue for years and demonstrates that in Europe—and in Italy—medicinal products containing this active substance are still in use.
The letter of 18 December 2025 is unequivocal as well: EFSA’s in-depth assessment is welcome, but immediate action is required.
The demands addressed to the Commission, as summarized in the letter, are articulated on three levels:
A ban on production, recognizing that blood collection for PMSG may fall under non-essential practices and is therefore incompatible with EU legislation on animals used for scientific purposes.
A ban on importation, invoking the possibility of restrictions on grounds of animal protection and public morality.
A ban on use, highlighting that alternatives exist and that its use is not “essential.”
This position is consistent with the civic and political mobilization that has gained momentum in recent years, also thanks to sustained information efforts—from journalistic investigations to European parliamentary questions supported by IHP.
IHP is not “one voice among many”: it is the Italian reference point within an international coordination that for years has brought evidence, analysis, and institutional pressure on the issue, from Iceland to South America. On the Icelandic front, in 2025 a European coalition—within which IHP represents Italy—delivered 300,000 signatures to the Ministry of Industry in Reykjavík, calling for the non-renewal of the pharmaceutical company’s license and an end to the trade in pregnant mares’ blood destined for PMSG. This ability to unite investigation, advocacy, and a culture of protection is not incidental: it is part of IHP’s identity, which works for regulatory and cultural change to safeguard equids, in addition to operating on the ground at its Recovery Center recognized by the Ministry of Health.
PMSG is not a “foreign issue.” It is a supply chain that speaks European: because demand originates where intensive farming pushes production beyond all limits; and because, as long as the market remains open, the suffering documented in Argentina, Uruguay, or Iceland will continue to be an “invisible” cost embedded in production systems.
For more than a decade, IHP has stated this clearly: without an official ban, voluntary suspensions are fragile, and other suppliers are ready to fill the gap.
The path forward is not intermittent outrage, but a clear, verifiable, binding political choice.
Europe now faces two options: wait until 2026, or acknowledge that animal protection cannot be a “programmed” horizon, but an immediate duty.