The NTP Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM) announced publication of the “International Workshop on Alternative Methods To Reduce, Refine, and Replace the Use of Animals in Vaccine Potency and Safety Testing: State of the Science and Future Directions” available from the Procedia in Vaccinology, and the NICEATM-ICCVAM website . To follow the priorities of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM), one of which concerns the Reduction, Refinement, and Replacement of animals, the ICCVAM organized a Workshop on at the NIH in September, 2011. The goals of this Workshop included reviewing the current alternative methods in vaccine science, identify knowledge gaps, and determine ways to address these gaps through research, development and validation. The report generated from this Workshop includes papers from the sessions. The main outcome of these sessions was to create a list of vaccines that should have the “highest priority in future reduction, refinement, and replacement efforts”. Additional recommendations included identifying earlier humane endpoints to avoid pain and discomfort in animal vaccine research. Serology testing should play a larger role as a way to minimize challenge testing. Successful non-animal alternative testing models should be adapted for use to test vaccines that currently have no alternative testing strategies. Another recommendation recognized the need for increased harmonization between human and veterinary researchers to seek alternative models.
