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. 

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...

Consumer demand for retail cage-free eggs is driving the layer industry towards greater use of extensive housing environments. However, there is limited research on how these environments affect egg production characteristics of brown egg layers...

Promoting good primate welfare outside of daylight hours is an important task. The responsibility to provide a complex environment and environmental enrichment is an essential element of primate wellbeing programs that should be approached from...

Shelters are stressful environments for domestic dogs (Canis familiaris). Evaluating dogs’ welfare is crucial to improve their life condition and to promote a better management of shelters. We aimed at verifying which variables improved welfare...

Environmental enrichment can increase the occurrence of natural behavior and improve leg health and other animal welfare outcomes in broiler chickens. This study aimed to assess the effects of three environmental enrichments, specifically hay bales...

The length of stay for some animals has increased with the recent reduction of animals euthanized in US shelters and animal control facilities. Research examining the effectiveness of different types of enrichment on buffering the...

This study investigated age-related changes in turkey welfare measures (wounds, feather quality (FQ), feather cleanliness, and footpad condition (FCON)) and walking ability (gait) as influenced by different types of environmental enrichment (EE). Tom turkeys (n...

The objective was to evaluate the impacts of a complex environment and stocking density on Ross 708 broiler chicken behaviors. Eight pens contained either high complexity (HC) or low complexity (LC) environments, and high (HD)...

Common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) are New World primates that are found within the coastal rainforests of North East (NE) Brazil. They are a multisensory species, relying on all their senses to survive. It is the...

Even though chinchillas have been farmed for a century, there are not many studies concerning their behaviour in captivity or their optimal housing conditions, both of which are important factors in the assessment of their...

Animal stress is influenced by environmental factors, yet only a few studies have evaluated the effects of environmental stress on captive dogs. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of environmental and social enrichment on...

The goal of this randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study was to evaluate the effect of environmental enrichment (EE) on post-operative pain and anxiety in dogs following hemilaminectomy for acute intervertebral disc extrusion (IVDE).MethodsTwenty healthy client-owned dogs...

Laying hens are typically moved to a novel environment after rearing, requiring adaptability to cope with change. We hypothesized that the standard rearing of laying hen chicks, in non-changing environments with limited choices (a single...

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...

In recent years, there has been much research into the individual effects of enclosure complexity and visitor presence on captive animal welfare. However, the inter-linkages between enclosure complexity and visitor presence and their combined influence...

Providing an increased variety of environmental enrichment options, with sufficient space to use them, could increase the behavioural expression of positive affective states in production animals. The goal of this study was to investigate associations...

Foraging enrichment is considered one of the most effective ways to enhance expression of species-typical behaviours and prevent the development of abnormal (repetitive) behaviours in captive animals. However, foraging enrichments for parrots have thus far...

Environmental enrichment (EE) is used to promote natural behaviours in captive animals and may hold promise as a form of pre-release training, a strategy for improving coping skills of translocated birds. We investigated the use...

Animals use specific behaviors and skills to overcome challenges and access resources. Environmental enrichment is provided to animals in human care to both promote species-appropriate behaviors and reduce undesired behaviors. Feather pecking in birds is...

Research on the psychological and physiological well-being of captive animals has focused on investigating different types of social and structural enrichment. Consequently, cognitive enrichment has been understudied, despite the promising external validity, comparability, and applicability...

Retail dog toys are often provided to companion animals to provide cognitive and physical stimu- lation and improve the animals’ quality of life. These toys, sometimes known as “enrichment toys”, have been shown to play...

Flow is an altered state of feeling ‘in the zone’ when fully absorbed in a challenge and is associated with positive affective state (feelings). Despite almost five decades of research, Flow has not yet been...

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...

In Europe, regulations contain guidance to maintain high standards of animal welfare. In many parts of the world, large buyers for supermarkets or restaurants are the main enforcers of basic animal welfare standards. They can...

Human interaction is one of the most consistently effective interventions that can improve the welfare of shelter-living dogs. Time out of the kennel with a person has been shown to reduce physiological measures of stress...