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. 
Kiddie, J., Bodymore, A., Dittrich, A. 2017. Environmental enrichment in kennelled pit bull terriers (Canis lupus familiaris). Animals 7(4), 27.

Although social enrichment can be considered beneficial in helping dogs cope with the kennel environment, when taking individual needs into account, it places a large demand on the carers and may not be appropriate in...

Bowman, A., Scottish SPCA, Dowell, F. J. et al. 2017. 'The effect of different genres of music on the stress levels of kennelled dogs'. Physiology & Behavior 171, 207-215.

Classical music has been shown to reduce stress in kennelled dogs; however, rapid habituation of dogs to this form of auditory enrichment has also been demonstrated. The current study investigated the physiological and behavioural response...

Alligood, C. A., Dorey, N. R., Mehrkam, L. R. et al. 2017. Applying behavior-analytic methodology to the science and practice of environmental enrichment in zoos and aquariums. Zoo Biology 36(3), 175–185.

Environmental enrichment in zoos and aquariums is often evaluated at two overlapping levels: published research and day‐to‐day institutional record keeping. Several authors have discussed ongoing challenges with small sample sizes in between‐groups zoological research and...

Ellis, J. J., Stryhn, H., Spears, J. 2017. Environmental enrichment choices of shelter cats. Behavioural Processes 141, 291-296.

Choices made by cats between different types of environmental enrichment may help shelters to prioritize how to most effectively enrich cat housing, especially when limited by space or funds. This study investigates the environmental enrichment...

Vitale Shreve, K. R., Mehrkam, L. R., Udell, M. A. R. 2017. Social interaction, food, scent or toys? A formal assessment of domestic pet and shelter cat (Felis silvestris catus) preferences. Behavioural Processes 141, 322-328.

Domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) engage in a variety of relationships with humans and can be conditioned to engage in numerous behaviors using Pavlovian and operant methods Increasingly cat cognition research is providing evidence of...

Meagher, R. K., Campbell, D. L. M., Mason, G. J. 2017. Boredom-like states in mink and their behavioural correlates: A replicate study. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 197, 112-119.

Scientists and laypeople have long expressed concern that animals in non-enriched, unchanging environments might experience boredom. However, this had attracted little empirical study: the state is difficult to assess without verbal self-reports, and spontaneous behavioural...

Mandel, R., Nicol, C. J. 2017. Re-direction of maternal behaviour in dairy cows. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 195, 24-31.

In the milk producing industry, most aspects of maternal behaviour are discouraged, but milk production is actively maintained in the absence of the calf. The process of milk let down, is mediated, at least partly...

Horvath, K., Fernandez, M., Miller-Cushon, E. K. 2017. The effect of feeding enrichment in the milk-feeding stage on the cognition of dairy calves in a T-maze. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 187, 8-14.

In many species, environmental complexity is known to affect cognitive development, yet it is common to house dairy calves individually in restrictive environments. The hypothesis of this study was that providing calves with simple nutritional...

Coleman, K., Weed, J. L., Schapiro, S. J. 2017. Chapter 2 - Psychological environmental enrichment of animals in research. In: Animal Models for the Study of Human Disease (2nd ed). Conn, P. M, (ed), 47-69. Academic Press, London, UK.

Environmental enrichment is an integral part of animal care practices. Enrichment generally refers to items we provide to the animals to support their behavioral needs. It provides a way to functionally simulate the natural environment...

Clark, F. 2017. Cognitive enrichment and welfare: Current approaches and future directions. Animal Behavior and Cognition 4(1), 52–71.

Cognitive enrichment” is a subset of enrichment that has gained interest from researchers over the past decade, particularly those working in zoos. This review explores the forms of cognitive enrichment that have been attempted for...

Brayley, C., Montrose, V. T. 2016. The effects of audiobooks on the behaviour of dogs at a rehoming kennels. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 174, 111-115.

Domestic dogs are often kept in kennelled environments. These may be stressful, and impact negatively upon welfare, due to unpredictable variations in space, social interaction and noise. Auditory stimulation such as music has been demonstrated...

Dantas, L. M., Delgado, M. M, Johnson, I. et al. 2016. Food puzzles for cats: Feeding for physical and emotional wellbeing. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery 18(9), 723-732.

Many pet cats are kept indoors for a variety of reasons (eg, safety, health, avoidance of wildlife predation) in conditions that are perhaps the least natural to them. Indoor housing has been associated with health...

Byrd, C. P., Winnicker, C., Gaskill, B. N. 2016. Instituting dark-colored cover to improve central space use within guinea pig enclosure. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 19(4), 408-413.

Domestic guinea pigs (Cavia aperea f. porcellus) in laboratories have been shown to actively avoid the centers of their cages. This experiment tested a novel, dark-colored “shader” placed over the central portion of a cage...

Johnson, C. H., Carter, K. 2016. The enrichment club. Lab Animal 45(9), 341.

Regulatory requirements provide instructions on enrichment specifically for nonhuman primates, but we believe all animals can benefit from enrichment if it is structured for that species. Hired as the Director of Behavior Management and Environmental...

Loberg, J. M., Lundmark, F. 2016. The effect of space on behaviour in large groups of domestic cats kept indoors. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 182, 23-29.

The domestic cat (Felis silvestris catus) originates from the solitary living African wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica). However, through domestication, the domestic cat has become more social towards conspecifics and group housing of cats is common...

Döringa, D., Kettera, D. A., Klima, A. et. al. 2016. Horn of calf hooves as chews in laboratory dogs. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 13, 39-45.

European law recommends the enrichment of laboratory dogs with chewing objects. This study examines the suitability of the horn of calf hooves for this purpose and was performed with 62 dogs (60 beagles, 2 Foxhound...

Schwarzer, A., Bergmann, S., Manitz, J. et al. 2016. Behavioral studies on the use of open water basins by American mink (Neovison vison). Journal of Veterinary Behavior 13, 19-26.

The aims of this study were to investigate whether farmed mink use swimming basins as an environmental enrichment factor and to identify layouts suitable to allow mink to perform their characteristic behavior to a large...

Döring, D., Haberland, B. E., Bauer, A. et al. 2016. Behavioral observations in dogs in 4 research facilities: Do they use their enrichment? Journal of Veterinary Behavior 13, 55-62.

European legislation recommends comfortable resting areas, toys, and chews in laboratory dogs' husbandry. However, there is no standard “enrichment” defined for laboratory dogs as yet. Different research facilities provide different housing conditions and forms of...

Ma, B., Green, J., Sizemore, S. et al. 2016. Variation on providing research dog enrichment. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 4(2) (June), 50-51.

In order to provide research dogs enrichment at our facility, veterinary staff suggested adapting the adjacent space to our dog housing buildings to allow for more species-specific behavior by creating an exercise area that both...

Snowdon, C. T., Teie, D., Savage, M. 2015. Cats prefer species-appropriate music. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 166, 106-111.

Many studies have attempted to use music to influence the behavior of nonhuman animals; however, these studies have often led to conflicting outcomes. We have developed a theoretical framework that hypothesizes that in order for...

Kiddie, J., Collins, L. 2015. Identifying environmental and management factors that may be associated with the quality of life of kenneled dogs (Canis familiaris). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 167, 43-55.

This paper describes the use of a validated quality of life assessment tool (described elsewhere) to identify environmental and management factors that may affect quality of life in dogs kennelled in rehoming centres. Dogs were...

Rehnberg, L. K., Robert, K. A., Watson, S. J. et al. 2015. The effects of social interaction and environmental enrichment on the space use, behaviour and stress of owned housecats facing a novel environment. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 169, 51-61.

Every day, millions of domestic cats are held temporarily in captive environments, such as boarding catteries and rescue shelters. Being in confinement can potentially invoke high levels of stress for these animals. Therefore, there is...

Bayne, K. A., Beaver, B. V., Mench, J. A. et al. 2015. Laboratory animal behavior. In: Laboratory Animal Medicine, 3rd edition. Fox, J. G., Anderson, L., Otto, G., et al. (eds). Elsevier, Inc., Amsterdam, NL. pp. 1617-1651.

The study of laboratory animal behavior has increased steadily over the last decade, with expanding emphasis on a variety of commonly used species. In the United States, this trend was initially focused on species for...

Crofton, E. J., Zhang, Y., Green, T. A. 2015. Inoculation stress hypothesis of environmental enrichment. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 49, 19-31.

One hallmark of psychiatric conditions is the vast continuum of individual differences in susceptibility vs. resilience resulting from the interaction of genetic and environmental factors. The environmental enrichment paradigm is an animal model that is...

Arhant, C., Wogritsch, R., Troxler, J. 2015. Assessment of behavior and physical condition of shelter cats as animal-based indicators of welfare. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 10(5), 399-406.

Surveillance of cat shelters by official veterinarians in Austria is based on legal requirements and does not directly assess cat welfare. The aim of this study was to develop animal-based parameters that are feasible to...