Pregnant Mare Serum Gonadotropin
Pregnant Mare Serum Gonadotropin (abbreviated PMSG ), often referred to as in current publications Equine chorionic gonadotropin called, even horse serum gonadotropin called, is the of pregnant horses undistributed sex hormone from the group of gonadotropins . It stimulates the function of the ovaries in the early stages of pregnancy. If the hormone is administered to other mammals - especially pigs - it increases their fertility and meat growth and enables the due date to be controlled. PMSG is therefore used as a component of veterinary drugs in intensive animal husbandryapproved in many countries. The hormone is obtained from the blood serum of pregnant mares .
Animal rights activists denounced this practice in 2015 due to documented cases of animal cruelty in South American horse breeding operations. Since then, production has shifted significantly to European countries with much better housing conditions and animal welfare laws. The animal rights activists are of the opinion, however, that this production causes unnecessary animal suffering and should be avoided with existing alternatives. In the producing countries, the blood serum has become an important economic factor, which enables the horse owners to generate considerable additional income. Neither the European Union nor the relevant offices and associations in Germany (one of the main importers of PMSG) have so far spoken out against the use of the hormone.
physiology
PMSG is formed by modified narrow chorionic cells (so-called "belt cells") that migrate into the maternal uterine lining between the 35th and 38th day of gestation and form the mucosal craters ( endometrial cups ). These increase in size up to the 60th day of pregnancy and shrink from the 70th to 120th day of pregnancy. The PMSG production correlates with the size of these placenta formations. From day 35, PMSG can be detected in the mare's serum; the maximum production occurs between the 60th and 65th day of gestation and from the 120th day the serum concentration falls below the detection limit. In the mare, the PMSG presumably serves to ensure that the hormone develops an LH effect and stimulates further follicles to ovulate and luteum body formation . These secondary corpuscles are important for maintaining pregnancy in the first few months.
Use in animal breeding
PMSG is approved in Germany (except in organic animal breeding ) as a hormone preparation - without medical treatment reason - for pigs , cattle , sheep and goats . The main suppliers are in Iceland . The enormously high prices paid for mare blood containing PMSG are a great incentive for horse breeders to earn money with it. In Germany, the case of a farm in Thuringia went through the press, which also takes mare's blood.
Scandals in South America
In autumn 2015, animal rights activists from the Animal Welfare Foundation and the Tierschutzbund Zürich uncovered cases of animal cruelty on so-called “blood farms” in Uruguay and Argentina . They documented through videos, for example, that too much blood was drawn from the mares too quickly, that some of the animals were in poor health, had multiple abortions and, moreover, abuse by the workers was the order of the day. All of this leads to exhaustion , emaciation, anemia , miscarriages and a weakened immune system in the animals, so that, according to research by animal rights activists, 30% of mares die of it every year if the mares are pregnant twice. These conditions are attributed to inadequate animal welfare requirements in South America. According to media reports, the governments of the two countries investigated the allegations and largely confirmed them. However, nothing is said to have improved significantly in the period that followed, as video recordings from 2018 show.
Situation in Iceland
Although there was no official response to the scandals in South America, some veterinary drug manufacturers were looking for new producers in Europe. The pharmaceutical companies Merck, Sharp & Dohme (MSD), the German IDT Biologika and the French company Ceva Santé Animale have imported from South America in 2017 (MSD) and 2018 (IDT Biologika and Ceva.), According to research by Animal Welfare Foundation eV and Tierschutzbund Zürich ) set. Since then they have been purchasing PMSG from Europe. Iceland proved to be particularly favorable - both in terms of price, quality and keeping conditions on the large natural pastures .
The pregnant Icelandic horse mares , which live predominantly in the wild, currently deliver a total of around 170,000 liters of blood annually from late summer to autumn. For this purpose, the animals are fixed in a gate once a week and up to five liters of blood are drawn through a cannula in the neck. This procedure is repeated for 10 weeks. Each season there are 25 to 40 liters of blood per mare. In 2020, the proceeds from around 5000 horses from almost 100 farms amounted to around 10 million euros. Production has tripled since 2009 and more farms join them every year. This made Iceland the largest producer on the European PSMG market.
Since the mares are stressed by being caught, being in contact with people and being penned up during the procedure, and because dizziness can occur after the blood sample has been drawn, this contradicts Icelandic animal welfare law, which stipulates the preservation of the well-being of the animals . That and the enormous income from the blood trade are the reasons why nothing about it was made public in Iceland until recently.
The Swedish Nature Conservation Association names Denmark and Germany as the main consumers of the hormone from Icelandic horses.
Reactions in Germany and Europe
Animal welfare organizations criticize the use of PMSG with regard to the extraction from pregnant mares. This also applies to European production countries with sufficient animal welfare laws, as there are a large number of alternative drugs. According to the Albert Schweitzer Foundation for Our Environment, there are no precise data on the quantities used, neither for the EU nor for Germany, nor is there an obligation to report the use of PMSG. The German Farmers' Association has not issued a recommendation to avoid PMSG-containing preparations. The federal government announced in 2017:
“Overall, however, the information currently available is not sufficient for a final assessment of the animal welfare of the extraction process. For example, there is no concrete information about the amount of blood that is taken from the mares. "
The European Commission is also not planning (as of 2020) an import ban. A collection of signatures for a general import ban on PMSG with 2 million signatories at the EU Parliament did not lead to the desired success. Since the scandals in South America, the production of PMSG has been relocated to European countries of origin, where stricter animal welfare standards apply.
It is up to the vets to decide which preparation is used . Both PMSG and the alternative preparations have undesirable side effects. Possible reasons for choosing PMSG are that, in contrast to alternative medications, the hormone is not absorbed by humans in the event of accidental skin contact, that alternative preparations (despite broader side effects) lead to anaphylactic shock in farm animals less often than PMSG and that some alternatives cause Excretion are harmful to aquatic organisms . According to a statement by the federal government in response to a request from the Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen parliamentary group in 2017, there are considerations to synthesize PMSG using genetic engineering methods. That would make the extraction from horse blood superfluous.
100 grams of the hormone is said to cost around $ 900,000 and demand is increasing. Between 2013 and 2016, around 3.8 million single doses were used in Germany to treat pigs. From 2016 to 2019, the consumption increased to around 6.4 million single doses.
In 2020, the production of PMSG was named the Forgotten Message by the News Enlightenment Initiative .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bertram Schnorr, Monika Kressin: Embryology of Pets: A Short Textbook. Georg Thieme Verlag, 2006, ISBN 9783830410614 , p. 93.
- ↑ Juan C. Samper, Angus O. McKinnon, Jonathan Pycock: Current Therapy in Equine Reproduction . Elsevier Health Sciences, 2006, ISBN 9781437713008 , p. 387.
- ↑ Answer of the Federal Government to the minor question from MPs Friedrich Ostendorff, Nicole Maisch, Harald Ebner, other MPs and the Alliance 90 / THE GREENS on the subject of Pregnant Mare Serum Gonadotropin (PMSG) - production, approval and use , printed matter 18/12251 from May 5, 2017, online version , accessed November 26, 2020.
- ↑ a b MDR Thuringia: Horse blood from Thuringia for pig breeding - method controversial , online version , as of December 19, 2019, accessed on November 26, 2020.
- ↑ Video on the documentation of cruelty to animals
- ↑ Video recordings from 2018
- ↑ a b c d Albert Schweitzer Foundation: Horse blood for pork , online access , June 3, 2017, each amended on February 5, 2018, July 27, 2018, October 17, 2018, accessed on November 26, 2020.
- ↑ MSD
- ↑ IDT Biologika
- ↑ a b Mareike Timm: Islands Röda Guld , in Sveriges Natur , No. 5.20, volume 111, magazine of Svenska Naturskyddsföreningen, pp. 42–48.
- ↑ a b Response of the Federal Government to the minor question from MPs Friedrich Ostendorff , Nicole Maisch , Harald Ebner , other MPs and the Alliance 90 / THE GREENS on the subject of Pregnant Mare Serum Gonadotropin (PMSG) - production, approval and use , printed matter 18 / 12251 of May 5, 2017, online version , accessed November 26, 2020.
- ↑ 2020: Top 3. Initiative News Enlightenment , accessed on December 31, 2020 (German).