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. 
Wang, R., Liu, R., Li, L. et al. 2020. Fasting is not required for measuring plasma lipid levels in rabbits. Laboratory Animals 54(3), 272–280.

Plasma lipid and glucose levels are important parameters for evaluating the onset and development of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. In clinical and experimental studies of humans or mice, fasting is often required before testing plasma...

Hedenqvist, P., Trbakovic, A., Mellgren, T. et al. 2020. The effect of housing environment on bone healing in a critical radius defect in New Zealand white rabbits. PLOS ONE 15(5), e0233530.

In animal studies on bone healing, the effect of housing space and physical activity are seldom taken into account. Bone formation was evaluated in New Zealand White rabbits (mean ± SEM BW: 3.9 ± 0.11...

Reinhardt, V. (ed.) 2020. It’s Okay to Cry - Discussions by the Laboratory Animal Refinement & Enrichment Forum [LAREF], Volume V. Animal Welfare Institute, Washington, DC.

This is the 5th volume of selected discussions that took place on the electronic Laboratory Animal Refinement & Enrichment Forum between February 2016 and December 2019. The forum was created in October 2002; it allows...

Kendrick, J., Stow, R., Ibbotson, N. et al. 2020. A novel welfare and scientific approach to conducting dog metabolism studies allowing dogs to be pair housed. Laboratory Animals 54(6), 588-598.

Metabolism cages are designed to conduct absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) studies, enabling an ‘excretion balance’ scientific objective to be met. Historically, the design of dog metabolism cages has involved single housing. This type...

Szymczyk, K., Gabriel, S., Zegre Cannon, C. 2020. Removing the blindfold in blind intubation: A summary of tips and tricks for successful rabbit intubation. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 8(5) (September/October), 76-81.

Intubation in rabbits can be difficult due to their unique anatomical features. Large incisors, long narrow oral cavities, thick tongues, and limited mobility of the temporomandibular joint make laryngeal visualization difficult. It is the hope...

Raillard, M., Detotto, C., Grepper, S. et al. 2019. Anaesthetic and perioperative management of 14 male New Zealand white rabbits for calvarial bone surgery. Animals 9(11), 896.

Calvarial bone surgery on rabbits is frequently performed. This report aims to document a simple and practical anaesthetic and perioperative management for this procedure. Fourteen male New Zealand white rabbits were included in the study...

Lee, L. Y., Lee, D., Ryu, H. et al. 2019. Capnography-guided endotracheal intubation as an alternative to existing intubation methods in rabbits. JAALAS 58(2), 240-245.

Rabbits provide a unique challenge for routine endotracheal intubation in clinical practice because of various distinctive anatomic and physiologic features. Many previously proposed methods for endotracheal intubation in rabbits are limited by several factors, including...

Bartley, K. A., Johnson, C. H. 2019. Human infant pants for postoperative protection during social housing of New Zealand white rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus). JAALAS 58(4), 510-516.

Elizabethan collars (E-collars) are commonly used in various species to safeguard healing wounds. However, E-collars inadvertently restrict the expression of normal species-typical behaviors, including coprophagy, self-grooming, and social housing. To maintain social housing in accordance...

Association of Primate Veterinarians. 2019. Association of Primate Veterinarians’ Position Statement: Cerebrospinal fluid aspiration for nonhuman primates in biomedical research. JAALAS 58(4), 428-429.

The Association of Primate Veterinarians (APV) recognizes that CSF collection may be required for both clinical and research purposes in nonhuman primates (NHP). Because there are inherent risks associated with the technique, the laboratory animal...

Jones, C. T., Fransson, B. A. 2019. Evaluation of the effectiveness of preoperative administration of maropitant citrate and metoclopramide hydrochloride in preventing postoperative clinical gastroesophageal reflux in dogs. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 255(4), 437-445.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the prophylactic effectiveness of preoperative administration of maropitant citrate and metoclopramide hydrochloride in preventing postoperative clinical gastroesophageal reflux (GER) in dogs and to identify risk factors for clinical postoperative GER in dogs...

Gill, S. S., Buote, N. J., Peterson, N. W. et al. 2019. Factors associated with dehiscence and mortality rates following gastrointestinal surgery in dogs. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 255(5), 569-573.

OBJECTIVE To identify factors associated with dehiscence and mortality rates following gastrointestinal surgery in dogs. ANIMALS 170 client-owned dogs that underwent gastrointestinal surgery from 2010 to 2016. PROCEDURES Medical records of all included dogs were...

Lensen, C. M. M., Moons, C. P. H., Diederich, C. 2015. Saliva sampling in dogs: How to select the most appropriate procedure for your study. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 10(6), 504-512.

Saliva sampling is an easy, noninvasive method to assess short-term physiological changes, and as such is a valuable addition to behavioral studies in dogs. Different methods for collecting saliva samples in dogs have been reported...

Lucrezia Costa, G., Nastasi, B., Spadola, F. et al. 2019. Effect of levobupivacaine, administered intraperitoneally, on physiological variables and on intrasurgery and postsurgery pain in dogs undergoing ovariohysterectomy. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 30, 33-36.

The aim of this study was to evaluate intraoperative and postoperative efficacy and cardiovascular effects of levobupivacaine compared with bupivacaine, administered intraperitoneally in dogs undergoing ovariohysterectomy surgery. Thirty female dogs were divided into three groups...

Phillips, K.A., Tukan, A. N., Rigodanzo, A. D. et al. 2018. Quantification of hair cortisol concentration in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) and tufted capuchins (Cebus apella). American Journal of Primatology 80(7), e22879.

Quantifying cortisol concentration in hair is a non‐invasive biomarker of long‐term hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal (HPA) activation, and thus can provide important information on laboratory animal health. Marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) and capuchins (Cebus apella) are New World primates...

Beamish, G., Chapman, C., Lomax, A. 2018. Design by intravenous injection in the Syrian hamster. Animal Technology and Welfare 17(2), 124-125.

Repeated injections in rats and mice are typically done via the tail vein. For hamsters, the tail is not an option. In this paper we explore the development and refinement of IV dosing in the...

Wolfe, A. M., Rahman, M., McFadden, D. G. et al. 2018. Refinement and successful implementation of a scoring system for myxomatosis in a susceptible rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) model. Comparative Medicine 68(4), 280–285.

Myxoma virus is a member of Leporipoxviridae whose tropism is tightly restricted to lagomorphs. In susceptible Oryctolagus rabbits, the virus causes a highly lethal disease known as myxomatosis, which begins as a localized infection but...

Chatigny, F., Groman, D. B., Martinson, S. A. et al. 2018. Evaluation of tissue changes following intramuscular infiltration of lidocaine in rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss. Journal of Fish Biology 92(4), 888-900.

Rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss were infiltrated with either saline or lidocaine adjacent to the dorsal fin to assess histopathological changes. Infiltration was done as if it were being used as a local anaesthetic. Tissue lesions...

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...

Regan, D., Garcia, K., Thamm, D. 2018. Clinical, pathological, and ethical considerations for the conduct of clinical trials in dogs with naturally occurring cancer: A comparative approach to accelerate translational drug development. ILAR Journal 59(1), 99-110.

The role of comparative oncology in translational research is receiving increasing attention from drug developers and the greater biomedical research community. Pet dogs with spontaneous cancer are important and underutilized translational models, owing to dogs’...

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...

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...

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...

McEntee, D., Borg, K., Markiewicz, V. 2016. Establishment of a home-cage in vivo method of New Zealand white rabbit urine collection. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 4(4) (December), 44-46.

The most common methods for rabbit urine collection are newborn stroking, cystocentesis, and transfer to a metabolism cage.2 None of these options allow for a significant, quality amount of urine to be collected in vivo...

Caron, A., Lelong, C., Pascual, M. H. et al. 2015. Miniaturized blood sampling techniques to benefit reduction in mice and refinement in nonhuman primates: Application to bioanalysis in toxicity studies with antibody-drug conjugates. JAALAS 54(2), 145-152.

Minimizing the number of animals in regulatory toxicity studies while achieving study objectives to support the development of future medicines contributes to good scientific and ethical practices. Recent advances in technology have enabled the development...