Demand of Animal Models Used for Vaccine and Biological Product Development in Thailand

Abstract

Testing vaccine in animal models is a crucial step for vaccine development before testing in human. Nowadays, there are a few animal units in Thailand, causing shortage of some animal models. The animal models can be classified into two groups: (1) small animal models such as rodents and rabbits, and (2) large animal models such as monkeys. This study aimed to assess the requirement and species of animal models use for vaccine and biological product development in Thailand. It was conducted as a survey using a set of questionnaires distributing to 46 vaccine collaborative units; and the response was obtained from 26 of them (60.00%). It was found that the demand for small animal models such as rodent and rabbit which has a demand up to 99.94% of all animals required (85,695 animals per year). The need for large animal models such as monkey was around 0.06% (51 animals per year). Most of the animal models were mostly used in the quality control process for vaccines production (91.68%). The preliminary survey results indicated that experimental animal is highly required for vaccine development especially both in quantity and quality. Therefore, the production of experimental animal models should be encouraged and supported by the government in order to reach the global standard and to promote the development of vaccines and other products in the future.