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. 
Bartley, J. 2019. Darwin’s fishes?: Keeping Malawi cichlids. Animal Technology and Welfare 18(3), 199-202.

This poster will provide information on the cichlids, including their dietary and husbandry requirements and the breeding of these animals.

Ritchie, A., Collier, P., Clare, P. et al. 2019. Food for thought: The development of drug loaded diets improve both science and welfare. Animal Technology and Welfare 18(3), 222-224.

In our facility, we use several hormone dependent tumour models with supplementation delivered via slow release subcutaneously implanted pellets, implanted via trochar. For example, breast tumours which rely on 17-β-Estradiol. Administration of E2 supplementation can...

Makowska, I. J., Weary, D. M. 2019. A good life for laboratory rodents? ILAR Journal 60(3), 373-388.

Most would agree that animals in research should be spared “unnecessary” harm, pain, or distress, and there is also growing interest in providing animals with some form of environmental enrichment. But is this the standard...

Špinka, M. 2019. Animal agency, animal awareness and animal welfare. Animal Welfare 28(1), 11–20.

In nature, animals need to actively engage with the environment in order to prosper in survival and reproduction. Hence, agency is a central adaptive characteristic of animal life. In this paper, I propose that from...

Lofgren, J., Miller, A. L., Shan Lee, C. C. et al. 2018. Analgesics promote welfare and sustain tumour growth in orthotopic 4T1 and B16 mouse cancer models. Laboratory Animals 52(4), 351-364.

Murine orthotopic cancer models often require surgery, potentially causing pain or distress. However, analgesics are often withheld because they may alter tumour development. Two orthotopically implanted cancers were investigated in mice pre-treated with meloxicam (10...

Costa, R., Sousa, C., Llorente, M. 2018. Assessment of environmental enrichment for different primate species under low budget: A case study. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 21(2), 185-199.

The 2011 European Union Zoo Inquiry presented evidence that most zoos fail to achieve adequate levels of nonhuman animal welfare. Appropriate environmental enrichment (EE) can play a role in the promotion of welfare. However, financial...

Yeates, J. 2018. Naturalness and animal welfare. Animals 8(4), 53.

Naturalness is considered important for animals, and is one criterion for assessing how we care for them. However, it is a vague and ambiguous term, which needs definition and assessments suitable for scientific and ethical...

Evangelista-Vaz, R., Bergadano, A., Arras, M. et al. 2018. Analgesic efficacy of subcutaneous–oral dosage of tramadol after surgery in C57BL/6J mice. JAALAS 57(4), 368-375.

This study investigated the analgesic activity of tramadol in female C57BL/6J mice by using a single subcutaneous injection (25 mg/kg) of tramadol combined with the same dose given in drinking water for 24 h. We...

Beninson, J. A., Lofgren, J. L., Lester, P. A. et al. 2018. Analgesic efficacy and hematologic effects of robenacoxib in mice. JAALAS 57(3), 258-267.

NSAID analgesics may confound models that require inflammation to mimic disease development in humans. This effect presents a challenge for veterinary staff and investigators, because surgery is often necessary to create mouse models of disease...

Smith, B. D., Vail, K. J., Carroll, G. L. et al. 2018. Comparison of etomidate, benzocaine, and MS222 anesthesia with and without subsequent flunixin meglumine analgesia in African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis). JAALAS 57(2), 202-209.

Often few alternative anesthetics for exotic species are available, due to the small numbers of these animals used in research. In this study, we evaluated the depth and duration of anesthesia in Xenopus laevis after...

Chatigny, F., Creighton, C. M., Stevens, E. D. 2018. Updated review of fish analgesia. JAALAS 57(1), 5-12.

Analgesics are an integral part of routine pain management in mammals, yet their use in fish is still limited. Some recommendations on the use of analgesics in fish are currently in the literature; however, information...

Graham, C., von Keyserlingk, M. A. G., Franks, B. 2018. Free-choice exploration increases affiliative behaviour in zebrafish. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 203, 103-110.

Cognitive stimulation has been shown to be rewarding and capable of eliciting positive emotions in several species. In contrast to the abundant learning and exploration opportunities available in nature, captive environments can be under-stimulating—with the...

Graham, C., von Keyserlingk, M. A. G., Franks, B. 2018. Zebrafish welfare: Natural history, social motivation and behaviour. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 200, 13-22.

Zebrafish are now one of the most used animal model species in scientific research worldwide. Our current knowledge of wild zebrafish is limited to an estimated range of their natural habitats and their tendencies to...

Jirkof, P., Arras, M., Cesarovic, N. 2018. Tramadol:Paracetamol in drinking water for treatment of post-surgical pain in laboratory mice. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 198, 95-100.

In the search for stress-free analgesia administration for laboratory mice suffering pain, oral delivery of Tramadol:Paracetamol (T:P) shows great promise. Here, we monitored the analgesic efficacy and side effects of a T:P combination administered solely...

Webb, S. J. N., Hau, J., Schapiro, S. J. 2018. Refinements to captive chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) care: a self-medication paradigm. Animal Welfare 27(4), 327-341.

In an effort to enhance welfare, behavioural management continually refines methods of non-human primate (NHP) care. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are one of the most cognitively complex captive NHPs and they have been observed to self-medicate...

Torad, F. A., Hassan, E. A. 2018. Sedative, analgesic, and behavioral effects of nalbuphine-xylazine and nalbuphine-midazolam combinations in dogs. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 28, 40-45.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the sedative, analgesic, and behavioral effects of nalbuphine-xylazine (NX) and nalbuphine-midazolam (NM) combinations for neuroleptanalgesia in dogs. A prospective randomized crossover study was done on six...

Neff, E. P. 2018. Home sweet home cage. Lab Animal 47(10), 261–264.

This feature describes creative ways in which technology can be used to study animals within their home cages, eliminating the need to handle, restrain, and separate them from cage mates. One example includes voluntary brain...

Darbyshire, A. K., Salleng, K., Chen,P. 2018. The shocking lives of electric eels. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 6(1) (March), 14-18.

Electric eels (Electrophorus electricus) are a unique species used for behavioral research in the Vanderbilt Animal Care and Use Program. Few resources are available to describe the housing and handling of this species in captivity...

Edmonds, D., Razaiarimahefa, T., Kessler, E. et al. 2018. Natural exposure to ultraviolet-B radiation in two species of chameleons from Madagascar. Zoo Biology 37(6), 452-457.

Many reptiles require ultraviolet-B radiation between 290 and 315 nm (UV-B) to synthesize vitamin D3 and process dietary calcium. In captivity, exposure to too little or too much UV-B can result in health problems such...

Ekesbo, I., Gunnarsson, S. 2018. Farm Animal Behaviour: Characteristics for Assessment and Welfare (2nd ed). CABI, Wallingford, UK.

Completely updated and revised, and with a new author team, this second edition of Farm Animal Behaviour continues to provide essential information on normal and stereotypic behaviors in a wide variety of farm animals to...

Lopez-Luna, J., Al-Jubouri, Q., Al-Nuaimy, W. et al. 2017. Reduction in activity by noxious chemical stimulation is ameliorated by immersion in analgesic drugs in zebrafish. Journal of Experimental Biology 220(8), 1451-1458.

Research has recently demonstrated that larval zebrafish show similar molecular responses to nociception to those of adults. Our study explored whether unprotected larval zebrafish exhibited altered behaviour after exposure to noxious chemicals and screened a...

Kluge, K., Larenza Menzies, M. P., Kloeppel, H. et al. 2017. Femoral and sciatic nerve blockades and incision site infiltration in rabbits undergoing stifle joint arthrotomy. Laboratory Animals 51(1), 54-64.

This study was designed to determine whether perineural injections of local anaesthetics decreases intraoperative nociception and improves postoperative analgesia in New Zealand White rabbits undergoing experimental stifle arthrotomy. All animals were anaesthetized using isoflurane and...

Jirkof, P. 2017. Side effects of pain and analgesia in animal experimentation. Lab Animal 46(4), 123-128.

This review highlights selected effects of untreated pain and of widely used analgesics such as opioids, non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs and antipyretics, to illustrate the relevance of carefully planned, appropriate and controlled analgesia for greater reproducibility...

Lahvis, G. 2017. Unbridle biomedical research from the laboratory cage. eLife 6, e27438.

Many biomedical research studies use captive animals to model human health and disease. However, a surprising number of studies show that the biological systems of animals living in standard laboratory housing are abnormal. To make...

Salyards, G. W., Lemoy, M.-J., Knych, H. K. et al. 2017. Pharmacokinetics of a novel, transdermal fentanyl solution in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). JAALAS 56(4), 443-451.

Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) are the most commonly used NHP biomedical model and experience both research and clinical procedures requiring analgesia. Opioids are a mainstay of analgesic therapy. A novel, transdermal fentanyl solution (TFS) has...