IABS has been collaborating with Humane Society International (HSI) under the umbrella of the Animal Free Safety Assessment (AFSA) collaboration since 2021 to promote the implementation of non animal based testing within the human and veterinary vaccines’ batch release testing. In the veterinary field, both the organizations started to collaborate with HealthforAnimals in the organization of dedicated events that took place within the 2022 (link to the Biologicals publication; link to the webinars and workshop recordings). The World Organization of Animal Health (WOAH) has been involved since that time to ensure the participation to the events to as many stakeholders as possible worldwide.

The events highlighted the need to set up more coordinated activities within the stakeholders to better disseminate the opportunities to implement non animal testing, or reduce and refine the animal use, and start to promote regulatory acceptance. HSI, IABS and HealthforAnimals created a dedicated project “Implement 3Rs in Veterinary Vaccines Batch Release Testing” that is now under review for funding.

This project was discussed at the WOAH Biological Standards Commission Meeting, that took place on 4-8 September 2023. The Commission expressed their positive opinion on the value of continuing this collaboration, requesting further information on the 3Rs process to define and select alternative methods to ensure quality, validation, and equivalency with existing methods. www.woah.org/app/uploads/2023/10/a-bsc-report-sept-2023-6.pdf (page 23).