Recent progress and future directions for reduction, refinement, and replacement of animal use in veterinary vaccine potency and safety testing: a report from the 2010 NICEATM-ICCVAM International Vaccine Workshop.

Veterinary vaccines contribute to improved animal and human health and welfare by preventing infectious diseases. However, testing necessary to ensure vaccine effectiveness and safety can involve large numbers of animals and significant pain and distress. NICEATM and ICCVAM recently convened an international workshop to review the state of the science of human and veterinary vaccine potency and safety testing, and to identify priority activities to advance new and improved methods that can further reduce, refine and replace animal use. Rabies, Clostridium sp., and Leptospira sp. vaccines were identified as the highest priorities, while tests requiring live viruses and bacteria hazardous to laboratory workers, livestock, pets, and wildlife were also considered high priorities. Priority research, development and validation activities to address critical knowledge and data gaps were identified, including opportunities to apply new science and technology. Enhanced international harmonization and cooperation and closer collaborations between human and veterinary researchers were recommended to expedite progress. Implementation of the workshop recommendations is expected to advance new methods for vaccine testing that will benefit animal welfare and ensure continued and improved protection of human and animal health.

Successful development and validation of an in vitro replacement assay for Leptospira vaccine potency tests.

The standard requirement for serial release potency testing of Leptospira bacterins in the United States is the hamster vaccination challenge test. It is a test that uses a large number of animals experiencing pain or distress, takes weeks to conduct, can be expensive and requires that laboratory personnel handle a viable zoonotic pathogen. In an effort to address these concerns, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) developed an in vitro method for potency testing of four Leptospira serovars. This enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was subsequently validated in the target species. USDA informed their biologics licensees, permittees and applicants of the availability of reference bacterins and the regulatory acceptance regarding this alternative test method in notices issued in 2007 and 2009. This presentation describes how the initial research and subsequent development and validation work were accomplished.