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. 
Marshall, K., Wolford, H., Martin, L. 2017. Creatively meeting the standards – taking rabbit housing to the next level. Animal Technology and Welfare 16(3), 226-228.

The 8th Edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals clarified its language regarding housing social species, specifying that, “Single housing of social species should be the exception…”. This is a...

Holgate, J. Y., Garcia, H., Chatterjee, S. et al. 2017. Social and environmental enrichment has different effects on ethanol and sucrose consumption in mice. Brain and Behavior 7(8), e00767.

Factors leading to the harmful consumption of substances, like alcohol and sucrose, involve a complex interaction of genes and the environment. While we cannot control the genes we inherit, we can modify our environment. Understanding...

Pasquarelli, N., Voehringer, P., Henke, J. et al. 2017. Effect of a change in housing conditions on body weight, behavior and brain neurotransmitters in male C57BL/6J mice. Behavioural Brain Research 333, 35-42.

The development of modern housing regimes such as individually ventilated cage (IVC) systems has become very popular and attractive in order to reduce spreading of pathogenic organisms and to lower the risk to develop a...

Zomeño, C., Birolo, M., Zuffellato, A. et al. 2017. Aggressiveness in group-housed rabbit does: Influence of group size and pen characteristics. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 194, 79-85.

The aim of this work was to study how the group size and the number of doorways in a pen may influence the aggressive interactions throughout the reproductive cycle among does kept in a part-time...

Stevens, C. H., Croft, D. P., Paull, G. C. et al. 2017. Stress and welfare in ornamental fishes: What can be learned from aquaculture? Journal of Fish Biology 91(2), 409-428.

The ornamental fish trade is estimated to handle up to 1.5 billion fishes. Transportation and handling of fishes imposes a range of stressors that can result in mortality at rates of up to 73%. Given...

Reid, K., Rogers, C. W., Gronqvist, G. et al. 2017. Anxiety and pain in horses measured by heart rate variability and behavior. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 22, 1-6.

As a herd species, the horse strongly desires social contact and interaction with conspecifics. Anxiety associated with social isolation may confound the display and interpretation of behavior associated with pain. This study examined the effect...

Sands, C., Evans, C., Buckmaster, C. A. 2017. The grooming sleeve: Encouraging conspecific-like behavior and strengthening the human-animal bond. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 5(2) (June), 52-53.

The act of grooming has been found to greatly decrease stress, heart rate, and cortisol levels in nonhuman primates; this decrease in stress and cortisol is seen in the animal being groomed, as well as...

Hesse, S., Bakker, T. C. M. , Baldauf, S. A. et al. 2016. Impact of social environment on inter- and intrasexual selection in a cichlid fish with mutual mate choice. Animal Behaviour 111, 85-92.

Social-rearing environment has profound effects on behaviour, physiology and development. A complex social environment enhances an individual's social skills and competence in many animal taxa. Consequently, complete social deprivation seriously impairs various aspects of behaviour...

Jolles, J. W., Aaron-Taylor, B., Manica, A. 2016. Recent social conditions affect boldness repeatability in individual sticklebacks. Animal Behaviour 112, 139-145.

Animal personalities are ubiquitous across the animal kingdom and have been shown both to influence individual behaviour in the social context and to be affected by it. However, little attention has been paid to possible...

Kamakura, R., Kovalainen, M., Leppaluoto. J. et al. 2016. The effects of group and single housing and automated animal monitoring on urinary corticosterone levels in male C57Bl/6 mice. Physiological Reports 4(3), e12703.

Mice are used extensively in physiological research. Automated home‐cage systems have been developed to study single‐housed animals. Increased stress by different housing conditions might affect greatly the results when investigating metabolic responses. Urinary corticosteroid concentration...

Pinnell, R. C., Almajidy, R. K., Hofmann, U. G. 2016. Versatile 3-D printed headstage implant for group housing of rodents. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 257, 134-138.

An unfavourable yet necessary side-effect of stereotaxic surgery involves the social isolation of post-surgery rats, in order to protect their wound site or skull-mounted implant from damage. Social isolation can cause a myriad of behavioural...

Jeger, V., Hauffe, T., Nicholls-Vuille, F. et al. 2016. Analgesia in clinically relevant rodent models of sepsis. Laboratory Animals 50(6), 418-426.

Postoperative analgesia in rodent sepsis models has been considerably neglected in the past. However, intentions to model clinical practice, increasing awareness of animal ethics, efforts to apply the 3Rs (replacement, reduction, refinement), and stricter legislation...

Blankenship-Paris, T. L., Dutton, J. W., Goulding, D. R. et al. 2016. Evaluation of buprenorphine hydrochloride Pluronic® gel formulation in male C57BL/6NCrl mice. Lab Animal 45(10), 370-379.

Providing adequate analgesia while minimizing handling and stress post-surgery can be challenging. Recently, there have been commercial products made available for providing long acting analgesia in rodents. However, we find there are limitations for use...

Kendall, L. V., Wegenast, D. J., Smith, B. J. et al. 2016. Efficacy of sustained-release buprenorphine in an experimental laparotomy model in female mice. JAALAS 55(1), 66–73.

Mice purportedly require dosing with the opioid buprenorphine (Bup-HCl) at least every 8 to 12 h to maintain an adequate plane of analgesia. Here we used an experimental laparotomy model to determine the clinical efficacy...

Taylor, B. F., Ramirez, H. E., Battles, A. H. et al. 2016. Analgesic activity of tramadol and buprenorphine after voluntary ingestion by rats (Rattus norvegicus). JAALAS, 55(1), 74–82.

Effective pain management for rats and mice is crucial due to the continuing increase in the use of these species in biomedical research. Here we used a recently validated operant orofacial pain assay to determine...

Shientag, L. J. 2016. Efficacy of common analgesics for postsurgical pain in rats. JAALAS 55(1), 7.

I have some comments about the use of ketoprofen for analgesia in rats discussed in the recent JAALASarticle by Waite and colleagues.3 One of the conclusions reached by the authors was that, for postsurgical pain...

Kanghae, H., Thongprajukaew, K., Jatupornpitukchat, S. et al. 2016. Optimal?rearing density for head?starting green turtles (Chelonia mydas Linnaeus, 1758). Zoo Biology 35(5), 454-461.

While ex situ conservation programs of juvenile green turtles (Chelonia mydas Linnaeus, 1758), before release to natural habitats, have been conducted in several countries, the optimal‐stocking density for husbandry has not yet been reported. The...

Enser, S. 2016. Comparison of housing and welfare of group housed rabbits. Animal Technology and Welfare 15(1), 77-79.

This poster is based on welfare improvements gained from group housing rabbits in floor pens in the new Antibody Production Facility with a focus on development, behaviours and environmental enrichment in both male and female...

Hellström, G., Heynen, M., Borcherding, J. et al. 2016. Individual consistency and context dependence in group-size preference of Eurasian perch. Behavioural Processes 133, 6-11.

Many fish spend a large part of their life in groups. The size of the group influences potential costs and benefits of group living, and depending on context a fish may prefer different group sizes...

Sauer, M., Fleischmann, T., Lipiski, M. et al. 2016. Buprenorphine via drinking water and combined oral-injection protocols for pain relief in mice. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 185, 103-112.

Buprenorphine is the opioid analgesic most commonly used in laboratory mice. However, to maintain therapeutically effective serum levels, repeated injections are required. To overcome negative aspects of restraint and injection, oral self-administration is a promising...

Sánchez-Muros, M. J., Sánchez, B., Barroso, F. G. et al. 2016. Effects of culture densities on feed demand, behavioural tests and on the hepatic and cerebral oxidative status in tilapia (Oreochromis sp.). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 185, 137-145.

The present study examines whether fish density affects behavioural tests, feed demand, and different parameters indicative of the oxidative status of the liver and brain of Orechromis sp. to identify welfare indicators for fish culturing...

Buijs, S., Vangeyte, J., Tuyttens, F. A. M. 2016. Effects of communal rearing and group size on breeding rabbits’ post-grouping behaviour and its relation to ano-genital distance. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 182, 53-60.

Group housing is becoming the standard for many farm animal species, as it is seen as a more welfare friendly way of keeping gregarious animals. Aggression between female breeding rabbits currently obstructs the implementation of...

Bozicovich, T. F. M., Moura, A. S. A. M. T., Fernandes, S. et al. 2016. Effect of environmental enrichment and composition of the social group on the behavior, welfare, and relative brain weight of growing rabbits. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 182, 72-79.

The objective of the study was to investigate if environmental enrichment and the composition of the social group would affect the behavior and relative brain weight of growing rabbits. Rabbits (72 males and 72 females)...

Keeling, L. J., Bøe, K. E., Christensen, J. W. et al. 2016. Injury incidence, reactivity and ease of handling of horses kept in groups: A matched case control study in four Nordic countries. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 185, 59-65.

There is increasing interest in keeping horses in groups, but progress is hampered by a lack of knowledge about which horses can and should be kept together. Therefore, our objective was to investigate the effect...

Herndon, N. L., Bandyopadhyay, S., Hod, E. A. et al. 2016. Sustained-release buprenorphine improves postsurgical clinical condition but does not alter survival or cytokine levels in a murine model of polymicrobial sepsis. Comparative Medicine 66(6), 455–462.

Cecal ligation and perforation (CLP) is a common technique for studying sepsis in mice. Because of the invasiveness of the procedure and its effects on clinical condition, many animal care and use committees require the...