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. 
Tracy, L. M., Temple, S. M., Bennett, D. C. et al. 2019. The reliability and accuracy of palpation, radiography, and sonography for the detection of keel bone damage. Animals 9(11), 894.

Palpation is the most popular method of measuring keel bone damage on live birds, although it has been criticized for being subjective and inaccurate. The goals of this study were to examine intra- and inter-rater...

Rentsch, A. K., Rufener, C. B., Spadavecchia, C. et al. 2019. Laying hen’s mobility is impaired by keel bone fractures and does not improve with paracetamol treatment. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 216, 19-25.

Keel bone fractures (KBF) in laying hens pose a severe problem for animal welfare as they are likely to be associated with pain and suffering. Furthermore, they are suspected to hinder or restrict hens in...

Shi, H., Li, B., Tong, Q. et al. 2019. Influence of nest boxes and claw abrasive devices on feather pecking and the fear responses of layer breeders in natural mating colony cages. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 220, 104842.

Natural mating colony cages for parent-stock layer breeders, instead of conventional cages with artificial insemination, have been widely adopted by many commercial farms in China. Although some natural mating behaviours can be expressed and broader...

ur Rahman, M. A., Xia, C., Ji, L. et al. 2019. Nutrient intake, feeding patterns, and abnormal behavior of growing bulls fed different concentrate levels and a single fiber source (corn stover silage). Journal of Veterinary Behavior 33, 46-53.

Twenty-eight bulls weighing 227 ± 6.8 (SD) kg were randomly assigned to four concentrate levels (1-1.5 kg [low level of concentrate {LC}], 1.5-2 kg [medium level of concentrate], 2-2.5 kg [high level of concentrate {HC}]...

Correia de Lima Almeida Paz, I., Correia de Lima Almeida, I., Milbradt, E. L. et al. 2019. Effects of analgesic and noise stimulus in gait score assessment. PLOS ONE 14(1), e0208827.

This experiment was carried out aiming to assess walking manner and speed of broiler chickens with different gait scores (GS), with or without sound stimulus, and with or without administration of analgesic. To that end...

Eusemann, B. K., Baulain, U., Schrader, L. et al. 2018. Radiographic examination of keel bone damage in living laying hens of different strains kept in two housing systems. PLOS ONE 13(5), e0194974.

A high prevalence of deviations and fractures of the keel bone is a widespread welfare problem in laying hens. The aim of this study was to experimentally investigate this multifactorial problem throughout the laying period...

Toscano, M., Booth, F., Richards, G. et al. 2018. Modeling collisions in laying hens as a tool to identify causative factors for keel bone fractures and means to reduce their occurrence and severity. PLOS ONE 13(7), e0200025.

Keel fractures represent a major productivity and welfare issue for the laying hen industry with greater than 50% of birds in recent surveys across various commercial operations and nations exhibiting some form of damage by...

Jung, L., Knierim, U. 2018. Are practice recommendations for the prevention of feather pecking in laying hens in non-cage systems in line with the results of experimental and epidemiological studies? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 200, 1-12.

Feather pecking (FP) in laying hens is an important animal welfare problem in practice, despite extensive research and increasing sources of advice for farmers. We aimed to give an overview over results from experimental and...

Ekman, L., Nyman, A.-K., Landin, H. et al. 2018. Hock lesions in dairy cows in freestall herds: A cross-sectional study of prevalence and risk factors. Acta Vererinaria Scandinavica 60(1), 47.

Hock lesions (HL) in dairy cows are a common animal welfare problem in modern dairy production with freestall housing systems, but there are no large-scale studies addressing its epidemiology in Sweden. The aims of this...

Riemer, S., Ellis, S. L. H., Thompson, H. et al. 2018. Reinforcer effectiveness in dogs—The influence of quantity and quality. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 206, 87-93.

Reinforcer effectiveness refers to the reinforcer’s ability to control the subject’s target behaviour and is therefore critical to training success. Yet animals’ preferences, and the effectiveness of different rewards to function as reinforcers, are often...

Zepp, M., Louton, H., Erhard, M. et al. 2018. The influence of stocking density and enrichment on the occurrence of feather pecking and aggressive pecking behavior in laying hen chicks. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 24, 9-18.

The housing conditions and environments experienced during the rearing period can influence the development of feather pecking in chickens during this time and in the subsequent laying period. The aim of this study was to...

Vázquez Diosdado, J. A., Barker, Z. E., Hodges, H. R. et al. 2018. Space-use patterns highlight behavioural differences linked to lameness, parity, and days in milk in barn-housed dairy cows. PLOS ONE 13(12), e0208424.

Lameness is a key health and welfare issue affecting commercial herds of dairy cattle, with potentially significant economic impacts due to the expense of treatment and lost milk production. Existing lameness detection methods can be...

Buisman, L. L., Alsaaod, M., Bucher, E. et al. 2018. Objective assessment of lameness in cattle after foot surgery. PLOS ONE 13(12), e0209783.

Assessment of lameness in cattle after foot surgery is important to monitor the recovery period, to improve the long-term success and the cows’ welfare. This longitudinal multicenter retrospective study was carried out to evaluate the...

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...

Bestman, M., Verwer, C., Brenninkmeyer, C. et al. 2017. Feather-pecking and injurious pecking in organic laying hens in 107 flocks from eight European countries. Animal Welfare 26(3), 355-363.

Feather-pecking and cannibalism may reduce the potential of organic husbandry to enhance the welfare of laying hens. We report risk factors for these issues based on a large survey of 107 commercial flocks in eight...

Fernandes, J. G., Olsson, I. A. S., Vieira de Castro, A. C. 2017. Do aversive-based training methods actually compromise dog welfare?: A literature review. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 196, 1-12.

The methods by which dogs are trained vary between methods involving mainly negative reinforcement and positive punishment (aversive-based methods) and methods based essentially in positive reinforcement and negative punishment (reward-based methods). However, the use of...

Pettersson, I. C., Weeks, C. A., Nicol, C. J. 2017. Provision of a resource package reduces feather pecking and improves ranging distribution on free-range layer farms. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 195, 60-66.

The effect of a resource package designed to reduce inter-bird pecking and increase range use was tested on fourteen free-range farms in the UK. The package comprised two types of objects intended to attract pecking...

Girard, T. E, Zuidhof, M. J., Bench, C. J. 2017. Feeding, foraging, and feather pecking behaviours in precision-fed and skip-a-day-fed broiler breeder pullets. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 188, 42-49.

Broiler breeder chickens are feed-restricted to control growth and maximize chick production. Feed restriction creates welfare concerns as conventional skip-a-day feeding can increase activity levels and oral stereotypies during the rearing period. A precision feeding...

Koch, C. S., Ballantyne, K. C., Tynes, V. V. et al. 2017. Training Rhea americana chicks to walk voluntarily across a scale; effect on the handler's time and the chicks' weight gain compared with traditional techniques: A pilot study. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 18, 69-75.

The purpose of this pilot study was to determine if Rhea americana chicks could be trained to walk voluntarily across a scale to be weighed. If the chicks were trainable, the following questions would be...

Foditsch, C., Oikonomou, G., Machado, V. S. et al. 2016. Lameness prevalence and risk factors in large dairy farms in upstate New York. Model development for the prediction of claw horn disruption lesions. PLOS ONE 11(1), e0146718.

The main objectives of this prospective cohort study were a) to describe lameness prevalence at drying off in large high producing New York State herds based on visual locomotion score (VLS) and identify potential cow...

Scullion Hall, L. E. M., Robinson, S. 2016. Implementing a successful positive reinforcement training protocol in laboratory-housed dogs. Animal Technology and Welfare 15(2), 83-88.

Training is recognised as important for laboratory animals, both to improve welfare and increase the efficiency of conducting husbandry and regulated procedures. Despite the acknowledged need for such training in the laboratory-housed dog and the...

Johannson, S. G., Raginski, C., Schwean-Lardner, K. et al. 2016. Providing laying hens in group-housed enriched cages with access to barley silage reduces aggressive and feather-pecking behaviour. Canadian Journal of Animal Science 96(2), 161-171.

Two trials were conducted to study the effect of feeding barley silage on the behaviour and performance of beak-trimmed laying hens. In each trial, 20 hens and 2 roosters were housed in each of eight...

Chiandetti, C., Avella, S., Fongaro, E. et al. 2016. Can clicker training facilitate conditioning in dogs? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 184, 109-116.

In the attempt to verify clicker training efficacy in shaping dogs’ novel behaviours, we studied 51 domestic dogs. Learning was evaluated in three different conditions: when the primary reinforcer (food) was presented in association with...

Daigle, C. L., Rodenburg, T. B., Bolhuis, J. E. et al. 2014. Use of dynamic and rewarding environmental enrichment to alleviate feather pecking in non-cage laying hens. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 161, 75-85.

Feather pecking (FP) can cause feather loss, resulting in physical injuries, which may lead to cannibalism. FP appears to be a redirection of foraging behavior, which intensifies when hens have difficulty coping with stress and...

Speer, B. 2014. Normal and abnormal parrot behavior. Journal of Exotic Pet Medicine 23(3), 230-233.

Behavior and behavior-associated issues are an important part of psittacine medicine. However, many veterinarians have an approach to parrots from the basics of handling and restraint to their assessment of behavioral issues (e.g., feather plucking)...