Refinement Database

Database on Refinement of Housing, Husbandry, Care, and Use of Animals in Research

This database, created in 2000, is updated every four months with newly published scientific articles, books, and other publications related to improving or safeguarding the welfare of animals used in research.

Tips for using the database:

  • This landing page displays all of the publications in the database.
  • Use the drop-down menus to filter these publications by Animal Type, Setting, and/or Topic.
  • Clicking on a parent category (e.g., Rodent) will include publications relating to all the items in that category (e.g., Chinchilla, Gerbil, Guinea Pig, etc.).
  • You may also add a keyword to further narrow your search.
  • Please note that at this time, only publications dated 2010 or later (with some exceptions) can be filtered by Animal Type and Topic, and only publications dated 2020 or later (with some exceptions) can be filtered by Setting. Most publications older than 2010 can only be searched by keyword. 
Golledge, H., Richardson, C. (Eds.) 2024. The UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management of Laboratory and Other Research Animals (9th ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. 1040 p.

The latest edition of the seminal reference on the care and management of laboratory and research animals. The newly revised ninth edition of The UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management of Laboratory and Other...

Malmkvist, J., Díez-León, M., Christensen, J. W. 2024. Animals with various forms of abnormal behaviour differ in learning performance and use of enrichment: Evidence from farm mink. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 271, 106167.

Abnormal behaviour has been related to differences in cognitive function and reduced animal welfare. However, these associations are understudied, and little is known about how various forms of abnormal behaviour affect learning performance, stress responses...

Marks, C. A., Allen, L., Lindeberg, H. 2023. Non-lethal dose-response models replace lethal bioassays for predicting the hazard of para-animopropiophenone to Australian wildlife. Animals 13(3), 472.

Para-aminopropiophenone (PAPP) is a potent methaemoglobin (MetHb) forming agent used for the lethal control of exotic carnivores and mustelids. To assess the sensitivity of Australian wildlife to PAPP we developed an in vivo assay that...

Warwick, C., Pilny, A., Steedman, C. et al. 2023. Mobile zoos and other itinerant animal handling events: Current status and recommendations for future policies. Animals 13(2), 214.

Mobile zoos are events in which non-domesticated (exotic) and domesticated species are transported to venues such as schools, hospitals, parties, and community centres, for the purposes of education, entertainment, or social and therapeutic assistance. We...

Štrbenc, M., Kuhar, U., Lainšček, D. et al. 2023. Rehoming and other refinements and replacement in procedures using golden hamsters in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine research. Animals 13(16), 2616.

Effective vaccines are needed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Forty golden hamsters were inoculated with two promising vaccine candidates and eighteen animals were used in pilot trials with viral challenge. ELISA assays were performed to...

Molnar, D. L., Vernasco Price, E. J. 2023. Use of a toy soak to maximize staff efficiency in cage wash operations. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 11(2) (March/April), 40-41.

The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals emphasizes that the primary aim of environmental enrichment is to enhance animal well-being. At our facility, at the end of a two-week cycle in a...

Anderson-Mondella, C. J., Maines, T. R., Tansey, C. M. et al. 2023. Meeting ferret enrichment needs in infectious disease laboratory settings. JAALAS 62(6), 518–524.

Environmental enrichment is a necessary component of all research vivarium settings. However, appropriate enrichment decisions vary greatly depending on the species involved and the research use of the animals. The increasing use of ferrets in...

Jimenez, I. A., Craney, M. C., Painter, M. C. et al. 2023. Behavioral evaluation of laboratory-housed ferrets (Mustela putorius furo) in different enclosure sizes. JAALAS 62(5), 382–394.

The domestic ferret (Mustela putorius furo) is a common research model for infectious disease and behavioral studies. Ferrets are social animals that are commonly pair-housed. The United States has no species-specific regulatory standards for housing...

LaFollette, M. R., Cloutier, S., Brady, C. M. et al. 2023. Benchmarking enrichment efforts in the US & Canada across species and enrichment categories. JAALAS 62(4), 303–316.

Enrichment is important for animal welfare and data quality. Provision of enrichment opportunities varies between species and enrichment category. However, data benchmarking these differences does not exist. Our objective was to characterize enrichment provision and...

Nicolis, I. N., Beale, C. N., Bidot, W. A. et al. 2022. Performance and consistency of circulating warm water blankets for rodents. JAALAS 61(1), 96-100.

General anesthesia as used for rodent research can have adverse effects on physiologic mechanisms. Thermoregulation is often greatly inhibited, with resultant deleterious effects on cardiac and respiratory function. These potential effects can be mitigated by...

Dancer, A. M. M., Díez-León, M., Bizley, J. K. et al. 2022. Housing and environmental enrichment of the domestic ferret: A multi-sector survey. Animals 12(9), 1065.

Ferrets (Mustela putorius furo) are kept and used in multiple sectors of society, but little is known about how they are housed and what environmental enrichment (EE) they may benefit from. We aimed to help...

Spitzer, H. B., Meagher, R. K., Proudfoot, K. L. 2022. The impact of providing hiding spaces to farmed animals: A scoping review. PLOS ONE 17(11), e0277665.

Many wild animals perform hiding behaviours for a variety of reasons, such as evading predators or other conspecifics. Unlike their wild counterparts, farmed animals often live in relatively barren environments without the opportunity to hide...

Madera, N., Adams, D., Offord, S. et al. 2022. Novel ferret enrichment: Ferrets have a ball. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 10(6) (November/December), 40-42.

The best types of enrichment for lab animals are ones that encourage the expression of positive species-specific behavior. Ferrets were domesticated for their hunting prowess to control vermin and ability to tunnel narrow holes to...

Edmunson, A. M., Duke Boynton, F. D., Rendahl, A. et al. 2021. Indicators of postoperative pain in Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus). Comparative Medicine 71(1), 76-85.

Despite the use of Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) in research, little is known about the evaluation of pain in this species. This study investigated whether the frequency of certain behaviors, a grimace scale, the treat-take-test...

Coleman, K., Shapiro, S. J. (Eds.). 2021. Behavioral Biology of Laboratory Animals (1st ed). CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.

This 30-chapter volume informs students and professionals about the behavioral biology of animals commonly housed in laboratory and other captive settings. Each species evolved under specific environmental conditions, resulting in unique behavioral patterns, many of...

Polanco, A., Meagher, R., Mason, G. 2021. Boredom-like exploratory responses in farmed mink reflect states that are rapidly reduced by environmental enrichment, but unrelated to stereotypic behaviour or ‘lying awake’. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 238, 105323.

Consistent with boredom, prior work has found that mink raised in non-enriched (NE) or enriched (E) conditions differ in their motivations to seek stimulation: NE mink spent more time oriented towards and in contact with...

Yatkin, E., Kulmala, N., Saukkonen, A. et al. 2021. A real-time health notification system aimed at enhancing the interaction between animal care staff and researchers promotes animal welfare. Laboratory Animals 55(3), 281-289.

Regardless of the microbiological status of an animal facility, research animals may experience health problems, leading to pain, suffering and distress. Simple and efficient tools are needed to collect data systematically, allowing researchers to react...

Lambert, K. 2021. DIY: Dehydrated watermelon training chips. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 9(4) (July/August), 48.

This simple DIY training treat is great for NHP, swine, rabbits, rodents, and dogs. Note that dehydrated watermelon may resemble muscle tissue!

Dickinson, A. 2021. Maximising efficacy of your health monitoring programme. Animal Technology and Welfare 20(3), 255-257.

There are a multitude of health monitoring techniques/ methods available. It can be difficult to know which of these to use and when to use them. This is an attempt to simplify, maximise the efficacy...

Talbot, S., Freire, R., Wassens, S. 2021. Identifying behavioural traits and underlying personality dimensions in domestic ferrets (Mustela putorius furo). Animals 11(8), 2173.

The aim of this study was to examine the personality structure of domestic ferrets (Mustela putorius furo) by using owner-based reporting of personality traits. A total of 743 ferret owners participated in an online questionnaire...

Campbell, D. L. M., Lee, C. 2021. A perspective on strategic enrichment for brain development: Is this the key to animal happiness? Frontiers in Veterinary Science 8, 720422.

Livestock animals are sentient beings with cognitive and emotional capacities and their brain development, similar to humans and other animal species, is affected by their surrounding environmental conditions. Current intensive production systems, through the restrictions...

da Silva Medeiros Elidio, H., Coelho, J. W. R., Cavalcanti Pereira da Silva, L. C. et al. 2021. Housing density and aggression in Syrian hamsters. JAALAS 60(5), 506-509.

The Syrian hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) is a solitary and naturally territorial animal, with female hamsters being more aggressive than males. This behavior makes handling difficult because they are usually housed in groups, which can lead...

Sandgrav Bak, A., Malmkvist, J. 2020. Barren housing and negative handling decrease the exploratory approach in farmed mink. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 222, 104901.

We examined the influence of cage enrichment and different types of short-term experiences on the temperament of farmed mink. We used juvenile Palomino mink (n = 600, housed in pairs of one male and one female) in...

Burn, C. C., Raffle, J., Bizley, J. K. 2020. Does 'playtime' reduce stimulus-seeking and other boredom-like behaviour in laboratory ferrets? Animal Welfare 29(1), 19-26.

Much environmental enrichment for laboratory animals is intended to enhance animal welfare and normalcy by providing stimulation to reduce 'boredom'. Behavioural manifestations of boredom include restless sensation-seeking behaviours combined with indicators of sub-optimal arousal. Here...

Filliettaz, C., Maxwell, L., Dragon, M. et al. 2020. Novel bleeding techniques in hamsters. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 8(1) (January/February), 44-46.

Hamsters have historically been used in our pharmacokinetic (PK) studies using the retro-orbital (RO) bleeding technique to collect blood samples. If performed incorrectly, this technique has the potential for animal welfare complications not usually seen...