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. 
McMillan, F. D. (ed). 2019. Mental Health and Well-being in Animals (2nd ed). CABI, Wallingford, UK.

This second edition is fully revised, expanded, and comprehensively updated with the most current knowledge about the full array of mental health issues seen in animals. Written by key opinion leaders, internationally-recognized experts and specialists...

de Oliveira, D., Keeling, L. J. 2018. Routine activities and emotion in the life of dairy cows: Integrating body language into an affective state framework. PLOS ONE 13(5), e0195674.

We assessed dairy cows’ body postures while they were performing different stationary activities in a loose housing system and then used the variation within and between individuals to identify potential connections between specific postures and...

Monk, J. E., Doyle, R. E., Colditz, I. G. et al. 2018. Towards a more practical attention bias test to assess affective state in sheep. PLOS ONE 13(1), e0190404.

Tests for attention bias potentially offer more rapid assessment of affective state in animals than existing cognitive methods. An attention bias test has previously been developed for sheep and validated as a measure of anxious...

Battini, M., Barbieri, S., Vieira, A. et al. 2018. The use of qualitative behaviour assessment for the on-farm welfare assessment of dairy goats. Animals 8(7), 123.

This research investigated whether using qualitative behaviour assessment (QBA) with a fixed list of descriptors may be related to quantitative animal- (ABM) and resource-based (RBM) measures included in the AWIN (Animal Welfare Indicators) welfare assessment...

Munoz, C., Campbell, A., Hemsworth, P. et al. 2018. Animal-based measures to assess the welfare of extensively managed ewes. Animals 8(1), 2.

The reliability and feasibility of 10 animal-based measures of ewe welfare were examined for use in extensive sheep production systems. Measures were: Body condition score (BCS), rumen fill, fleece cleanliness, fleece condition, skin lesions, tail...

Chotard, H., Ioannou, S., Davila-Ross, M. 2018. Infrared thermal imaging: Positive and negative emotions modify the skin temperatures of monkey and ape faces. American Journal of Primatology 80(5), e22863.

Facial thermography has enabled researchers to noninvasively and continuously measure the changes of a range of emotional states in humans. The present work used this novel technology to study the effect of positive and negative...

Gómez, Y., Bieler, R., Hankele, A. K. 2018. Evaluation of visible eye white and maximum eye temperature as non-invasive indicators of stress in dairy cows. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 198, 1-8.

The aim of this study was to investigate if visible eye white and eye temperature measurements are feasible non-invasive physiological indicators of acute stress in cows when they are exposed to cattle crush treatment for...

de Boyer des Roches, A., Lussert, A., Faure, M. et al. 2018. Dairy cows under experimentally-induced Escherichia coli mastitis show negative emotional states assessed through Qualitative Behaviour Assessment. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 206, 1-11.

Mastitis and associated pain have been identified as a major health and welfare problem affecting dairy cows, however little is known about how cows emotionally experience this illness. Qualitative behaviour assessment (QBA) is a ‘whole...

Lee, C., Cafe, L. M., Robinson, S. L. et al. 2018. Anxiety influences attention bias but not flight speed and crush score in beef cattle. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 205, 210-215.

Attentional biases towards threatening stimuli are increased when animals are in anxious states. An ability to assess negatively valanced affective states such as anxiety are important as they may be related to poor welfare. Flight...

Toaff-Rosenstein, R. L., Tucker, C. B. 2018. The sickness response at and before clinical diagnosis of spontaneous bovine respiratory disease. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 201, 85-92.

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is often diagnosed in feedlots after observing behavioral changes such as anorexia, with fever confirmatory. However, this method has poor diagnostic accuracy compared to postmortem lung lesions. Little is known about...

Cannas, S., Palestrini, C., Canali, E. et al. 2018. Thermography as a non-invasive measure of stress and fear of humans in sheep. Animals 8(9), 146.

No data have been published on the use of infrared thermography (IRT) to evaluate sheep emotions. We assessed whether this technique can be used as a non-invasive measure of negative emotions. Two voluntary animal approach...

Grant, E. P., Brown, A., Wickham, S. L. et al. 2018. What can the quantitative and qualitative behavioural assessment of videos of sheep moving through an autonomous data capture system tell us about welfare? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 208, 31-39.

Sheep can be exposed to a variety of challenges and failure to adapt to these challenges can compromise their health and wellbeing. Regular monitoring of stock on large-scale or extensive systems may not always be...

Lush, J., Ijichi, C. 2018. A preliminary investigation into personality and pain in dogs. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 24, 62-68.

Adherence to basic animal welfare standards involves effective monitoring and control of pain, especially in a veterinary setting. Assessment relies on behavioral and physiological indicators. However, individual differences in physiology mediate consistent individual differences in...

Wilson, L. A., Miller, J. J., Work, R. K. et al. 2018. Novel diet regimen for rabbits in a compromised oral wound healing study. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 6(1) (March), 49-51.

Rabbits are known to be finicky about food and will reject it based upon several factors: odor, texture, form, or method of presentation. It can be an even greater challenge to get rabbits to eat...

Unakafov, A. M., Möller, S., Kagan, I. et al. 2018. Using imaging photoplethysmography for heart rate estimation in non-human primates. PLOS ONE 13(8), e0202581.

For humans and for non-human primates heart rate is a reliable indicator of an individual’s current physiological state, with applications ranging from health checks to experimental studies of cognitive and emotional state. In humans, changes...

Reid, J., Nolan, A. M., Scott, E. M. 2018. Measuring pain in dogs and cats using structured behavioural observation. The Veterinary Journal 236, 72-79.

The contemporary approach to pain measurement in people and animals seeks to measure the affective (emotional) component of the pain experience using structured questionnaires with formal scoring methodology. Chronic pain has wide-ranging impacts which affects...

Deckers, N., Ruigrok, C. A., Verhoeve, H. P. et al. 2018. Comparison of pain response after subcutaneous injection of two maropitant formulations to beagle dogs. Veterinary Record Open 5(1), e000262.

The antiemetic maropitant, with metacresol as preservative (Cerenia, Zoetis), has been associated with pain after subcutaneous injection in dogs and cats. Recently, a generic formulation containing benzyl alcohol was authorised (Prevomax, Le Vet). Benzyl alcohol...

Zamansky, A., Bleuer-Elsner, S., Masson, S. et al. 2018. Effects of anxiety on canine movement in dog-robot interactions. Animal Behavior and Cognition 5(4), 380–387.

Canine behavioral disorders, such as various forms of fear and anxiety, are a major threat for the wellbeing of dogs and their owners. They are also the main cause for dog abandonment and relinquishment to...

Häger, C., Biernot, S., Buettner, M. et al. 2017. The Sheep Grimace Scale as an indicator of post-operative distress and pain in laboratory sheep. PLOS ONE 12(4), e0175839.

The EU Directive 2010/63/EU changed the requirements regarding the use of laboratory animals and raised important issues related to assessing the severity of all procedures undertaken on laboratory animals. However, quantifiable parameters to assess severity...

Rodrigues, M. V., de Castro, S. O., de Albuquerque, C. Z. 2017. The gingival vein as a minimally traumatic site for multiple blood sampling in guinea pigs and hamsters. PLOS ONE 12(5), e0177967.

Laboratory animals are still necessary in scientific investigation and vaccine testing, but while novel methodological approaches are not available for their replacement, the search for new, humane, easy, and painless methods is necessary to diminish...

Miranda, A., Pego, J. M., Correia-Pinto, J. 2017. Animal facility videoendoscopic intubation station: Tips and tricks from mice to rabbits. Laboratory Animals 51(2), 204-207.

Endotracheal intubation of laboratory animals is a common procedure shared by several research fields for different purposes, such as mechanical ventilation of anaesthetized animals, instillation of cytotoxic nanoparticles, infectious agents or tumour cells for induction...

Sadiq, M., Ramanoon, S., Shaik Mossadeq, W. et al. 2017. Association between lameness and indicators of dairy cow welfare based on locomotion scoring, body and hock condition, leg hygiene and lying behavior. Animals 7(11), 79.

Dairy cow welfare is an important consideration for optimal production in the dairy industry. Lameness affects the welfare of dairy herds by limiting productivity. Whilst the application of LS systems helps in identifying lame cows...

Oliver, V. L., Athavale, S., Simon, K. E. et al. 2017. Evaluation of pain assessment techniques and analgesia efficacy in a female guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) model of surgical pain. JAALAS 56(4), 425-435.

Guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) are a frequently used species in research, often involving potentially painful procedures. Therefore, evidence-based recommendations regarding analgesia are critically needed to optimize their wellbeing. Our laboratory examined the efficacy of carprofen...

Hawkins, P., McNeilly, A., Watson, J. et al. 2017. Report of the 2016 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent and Rabbit Welfare Group meeting. Animal Technology and Welfare 16(2), 77-86.

The RSPCA/UFAW Rodent (and now Rabbit) Welfare Group held a one-day meeting on 1 November 2016 at the University of Edinburgh and was attended by 70 delegates. Presentation topics included refinements in blood sampling rodents...

Sommerville, R., O’Connor, E. A., Asher, L. 2017. Why do dogs play? Function and welfare implications of play in the domestic dog. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 197, 1-8.

Play is an enigmatic behaviour, the function of which is still debated, despite more than a century of research. We discuss the evolutionary function of play behaviour, focusing on the domestic dog (Canis familiaris), a...