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. 
Robinson, L. M., Weiss, A. (Eds.) 2023. Nonhuman Primate Welfare: From History, Science, and Ethics to Practice. Springer, Cham, Switzerland. 671 p.

This volume reviews the broad topic of welfare in nonhuman primates under human care. Chapters detail the history of primates in captivity, ethical and legal issues surrounding the use of nonhuman primates as entertainment or...

Hube, D., Bill, J., Knop, E. S. et al. 2023. Physical injuries and hair corticosterone concentration in rabbit kits from single- and group-housed does kept on a commercial farm. Animals 13(2), 196.

In intense breeding programs, rabbits are exposed to numerous stress factors which could affect their welfare and health. It has been suggested that group housing is more comfortable for does and similar to the living...

Kaiser, S., Korte, A., Wistuba, J. et al. 2023. Effects of castration and sterilization on baseline and response levels of cortisol—A case study in male guinea pigs. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 1093157.

An uncontrolled reproduction of animals in human hands should be avoided. To meet this goal, animals are widely castrated, i.e., the gonads are completely removed. Since the gonads are the most important source of sex...

Neal Webb, S., Schapiro, S. 2023. Locomotion as a measure of well-being in captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Animals 13(5), 803.

Locomotion in non-human primates, including walking, climbing, and brachiating among other types of movement (but not pacing), is a species-typical behavior that varies with age, social housing conditions, and environmental factors (e.g., season, food availability...

Novák, J., Frynta, D., Nováková, D. et al. 2023. Social deprivation in maternal mouthbrooders Tropheus sp. “Caramba” (Teleostei: Cichlidae) decreases the success rate of reproduction and survival rate of fish fry. Scientific Reports 13(1), 8284.

Early offspring separation from mothers causes social deprivation. Mouthbrooding, when eggs and fry are incubated in the buccal cavity of the parent, is one of the reproductive strategies in fish. The mother is the incubating...

Vickery, H. M., Neal, R. A., Stergiadis, S. et al. 2023. Gradually weaning goat kids may improve weight gains while reducing weaning stress and increasing creep feed intakes. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10, 1200849.

Most dairy goat farms rear kids on ad libitum milk replacer; calf research suggests this improves growth and welfare, but solid feed intakes are problematic. Weaning can be gradual (incremental milk reduction) or abrupt (sudden...

Tédonzong, L. R. D., Ndju'u, M. B. M., Tchamba, M. et al. 2023. The influence of vegetation structure on sleeping site selection by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes). American Journal of Primatology 85(7), e23505.

Sleep is an important aspect of great ape life; these animals build sleeping platforms every night. In a community of chimpanzees, each subgroup selects a sleeping site where each individual builds a sleeping platform, mostly...

Englund, M. D., Cronin, K. A. 2023. Choice, control, and animal welfare: Definitions and essential inquiries to advance animal welfare science. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.

The ways in which humans can support good welfare for animals in their care is an ongoing subject of debate: some place emphasis on the animals’ physical health; others, on animals’ ability to live “natural...

Piekarski, N., Hobbs, T. R., Jacob, D. et al. 2023. A comparison of oocyte yield between ultrasound-guided and laparoscopic oocyte retrieval in rhesus macaques. Animals 13(19), 3017.

Obtaining quality oocytes is a prerequisite for ART-based studies. Here we describe a method for transabdominal ultrasound-guided (US) oocyte retrieval in rhesus macaques (Macaca mullata) and compare it to the standard surgical approach using laparoscopy...

Li, P.-H., Li, W.-B., Li, B.-W. 2022. Positional behavior and substrate use in wild Tibetan macaques. Animals 12(6), 767.

Body size and individual development significantly affect positional behavior and substrate use. However, only a few studies have been conducted on immature wild macaques. We studied wild Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana) inhabiting Mt. Huangshan, China...

Rosales, C., Sands, C. 2022. Confirming sexual maturity in male cynomolgus macaques by urinary spermatozoa microscopic examination. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 10(1) (January/February), 60-61.

Medications often require studies performed in sexually mature cynomolgus macaques. At this time, there are few options available to confirm sexual maturity in male macaques. Electroejaculation and collection of seminal fluid are invasive and require...

Tomeczko, S. 2022. Interpreting macaque facial expressions and body behavior in preparation for social housing. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 10(1) (January/February), 62-63.

This article will help those who are new to working with non-human primates. Interpreting macaque facial expressions and body behavior is important for beginning the process of pair housing two animals.

Chappell, J., Thorpe, S. K. S. 2022.The role of great ape behavioral ecology in One Health: Implications for captive welfare and re‐habilitation success. American Journal of Primatology 84(4-5), e23328.

Behavior is the interface through which animals interact with their environments, and therefore has potentially cascading impacts on the health of individuals, populations, their habitats, and the humans that share them. Evolution has shaped the...

Eisenbeiser, S., Serbe-Kamp, É., Gage, G. J. et al. 2022. Gills just want to have fun: Can fish play games, just like us? Animals 12(13), 1684.

It is common to observe play in dogs, cats, and birds, but have we been ignoring play in one of the most common house pets of all… fish? Aquarium fish are often used as meditative...

Svartberg, K. 2022. A possible basis for personality in dogs: Individual differences in affective predispositions. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 255, 105740.

Previously, dog personality traits that seem to correspond have been identified by the Dog Mentality Assessment (DMA) and the Behaviour and Personality Assessment in Dogs (BPH): Playfulness, Sociability, Curiosity/fearlessness (DMA) vs. Non-social fearfulness (BPH), Aggressiveness...

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...

Escribano, D., Doldán-Martelli, V., Cronin, K. A. et al. 2022. Chimpanzees organize their social relationships like humans. Scientific Reports 12(1), 16641.

Human relationships are structured in a set of layers, ordered from higher (intimate relationships) to lower (acquaintances) emotional and cognitive intensity. This structure arises from the limits of our cognitive capacity and the different amounts...

Mota-Rojas, D., Velarde, A., Marcet-Rius, M. et al. 2022. Analgesia during parturition in domestic animals: Perspectives and controversies on its use. Animals 12(19), 2686.

This article analyzes the physiological role of pain during parturition in domestic animals, discusses the controversies surrounding the use of opioids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and local analgesics as treatments during labor, and presents the...

Prentice, P. M., Houslay, T. M., Wilson, A. J. 2022. Exploiting animal personality to reduce chronic stress in captive fish populations. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 1046205.

Chronic stress is a major source of welfare problems in many captive populations, including fishes. While we have long known that chronic stress effects arise from maladaptive expression of acute stress response pathways, predicting where...

Torgerson-White, L., Sánchez-Suárez, W. 2022. Looking beyond the shoal: Fish welfare as an individual attribute. Animals 12(19), 2592.

Welfare is an individual attribute. In general, providing captive nonhuman animals with conditions conducive to good welfare is an idea more easily applied when dealing with few individuals. However, this becomes much harder—if not impossible—under...

Galpayage Dona, H. S., Solvi,C., Kowalewska, A. et al. 2022. Do bumble bees play? Animal Behaviour 194, 239-251.

A variety of animals have been found to interact with and manipulate inanimate objects ‘just for fun’, that is, to play. Most clear examples of object play come from mammals and birds. However, whether insects...

Albanese, V., Berardi, R., Llorente, M. et al. 2022. Mechanisms of expression of object play: A comparative study of stone handling in two captive groups of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis fascicularis). Behavioural Processes 203, 104774.

Stone handling (SH) is a form of solitary object play that is socially learned and culturally maintained. We studied two captive groups (Modena, N = 20; Padova, N = 20) of common long-tailed macaques housed...

Bilkó, Á., Petróczi, I., Bárdos, B. et al. 2022. Composition of the wild rabbit nest and its implication for domestic rabbit breeding. Applied Sciences 12(4), 1915.

Wild European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) give birth in an underground nursery burrow where the kits are hermetically closed into the nest chamber for several weeks except for the three minutes of daily nursing. Given this...

Schnell, A. K., Amodio, P., Boeckle, M. et al. 2021. How intelligent is a cephalopod? Lessons from comparative cognition. Biological Reviews 96, 162-178.

The soft‐bodied cephalopods including octopus, cuttlefish, and squid are broadly considered to be the most cognitively advanced group of invertebrates. Previous research has demonstrated that these large‐brained molluscs possess a suite of cognitive attributes that...

Labuguen, R., Matsumoto, J., Negrete, S. B. et al. 2021. MacaquePose: A novel “in the wild” macaque monkey pose dataset for markerless motion capture. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 14, 581154.

Video-based markerless motion capture permits quantification of an animal's pose and motion, with a high spatiotemporal resolution in a naturalistic context, and is a powerful tool for analyzing the relationship between the animal's behaviors and...