diff --git a/REQUIRE b/REQUIRE
index 7b1150a893..e5cb2fc497 100644
--- a/REQUIRE
+++ b/REQUIRE
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 julia 0.5
 DiffEqJump
 DiffEqBase
+Compat 0.17.0
diff --git a/src/DiffEqBiological.jl b/src/DiffEqBiological.jl
index 51f4b20ba3..48d9ece6f4 100644
--- a/src/DiffEqBiological.jl
+++ b/src/DiffEqBiological.jl
@@ -4,7 +4,8 @@ module DiffEqBiological
 
 using DiffEqJump
 
-abstract AbstractReaction
+using Compat
+@compat abstract type AbstractReaction end
 
 include("reactions.jl")
 include("problem.jl")