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. 
Giles, J. M., Whitaker, J. W., Moy, S. S. et al. 2018. Effect of environmental enrichment on aggression in BALB/cJ and BALB/cByJ mice monitored by using an automated system. JAALAS 57(3), 236-243.

Aggression among mice remains a common undesirable problem in laboratory settings, and animal welfare and scientific outcomes may become compromised depending on the severity of aggression. This study evaluated the effect of cage enrichment comprising...

Walker, M., Mason, G. 2018. A comparison of two types of running wheel in terms of mouse preference, health, and welfare. Physiology & Behavior 191, 82-90.

Voluntary wheel running occurs in mice of all strains, sexes, and ages. Mice find voluntary wheel running rewarding, and it leads to numerous health benefits. For this reason wheels are used both to enhance welfare...

Shapiro, M. E., Shapiro, H. G., Ehmke, E. E. 2018. Behavioral responses of three lemur species to different food enrichment devices. Zoo Biology 37(3), 146–155.

Environmental enrichment is a tool used to promote the welfare and well‐being of captive animals by encouraging the display of species‐specific behaviors and reducing the stress or boredom induced by captive environments. Lemurs are highly...

Baker, B., Taylor, S., Montrose, V. T. 2018. The effects of olfactory stimulation on the behavior of captive ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta). Zoo Biology 37(1), 16–22.

Ring‐tailed lemurs reside in many animal collections worldwide. Lemur welfare may be a cause of concern due to some captive individuals exhibiting stereotypic behavior. Despite these concerns, there has been little exploration of methods of...

Hawkins, P., McBride, A., Paiba, G. et al. 2018. Report of the 2017 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent and Rabbit Welfare Group meeting. Animal Technology and Welfare 17(2), 75-83. [Meeting Report]

The RSPCA/UFAW Rodent (and now Rabbit) Welfare Group held a one-day meeting on 14 November 2017 in Weybridge, UK. The first session addressed meeting animals' needs and aiming for a 'good life', with the needs...

Pearson, K., Gant, J. 2018. Improving rabbit enrichment: Developing a rolling enrichment plan. Animal Technology and Welfare 17(2), 121-123.

A three-week enrichment preference study trialling different substrates, food and pen structures was carried out in three, group-housed female New Zealand White Rabbits (NZW). Preference results: structural - rabbits spent the most time with a...

Clarke, D., Ioannou, L. 2018. Introduction of gang caging for group housed rats. Animal Technology and Welfare 17(2), 136-137.

Using an existing gang cage designed for ferrets, we developed a version that would be suitable for housing rats. Caging consisted of 3 floors with a combined floor area of 11620m, connected by 2 ladders...

Dean, L., Swan, J., Lopez-Salesansky, N. et al. 2018. The introduction of a cable tie swing and its impact on animal welfare. Animal Technology and Welfare 17(1), 43-45.

Common enrichment for mice is usually restricted to the floor and easily damaged, leading to frequent replacement. We have been studying the behaviour of NSG mice towards a 'swing' made from plastic cable ties. This...

Aujnaraina, A. B., Luoa, O. D., Taylor, N. et al. 2018. Effects of exercise and enrichment on behaviour in CD-1 mice. Behavioural Brain Research 342, 43-50.

A host of scholarly work has characterized the positive effects of exercise and environmental enrichment on behaviour and cognition in animal studies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the uptake and longitudinal impact...

Sikora, M., Nicolas, C., Istin, M. et al. 2018. Generalization of effects of environmental enrichment on seeking for different classes of drugs of abuse. Behavioural Brain Research 341, 109-113.

Background: Addiction is a chronic disease characterized by persistent vulnerability to relapse during abstinence. In animal models of addiction, accumulating evidence suggests that exposure to environmental enrichment (EE) during periods of abstinence can have curative...

Wang, R., Hausknechta, K. A., Haj-Dahmane, S. et al. 2018. Decreased environmental complexity during development impairs habituation of reinforcer effectiveness of sensory stimuli. Behavioural Brain Research 337, 53-60.

Previous research has shown that rats reared in simple/impoverished environments demonstrate greater repetitive responding for sensory reinforcers (e.g., light onset). Moreover, the brains of these rats are abnormally developed, compared to brains of rats reared...

Reijgwart, M. L., Vinke, C. M., Hendriksen, C. F. M. et al. 2018. An explorative study on the effect of provision of preferred and non-preferred enrichment on behavioural and physiological parameters in laboratory ferrets (Mustela putorius furo). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 203, 64-72.

Environmental enrichment is often advocated to refine animal studies. Despite the increasing use of ferrets as an animal model in biomedical research, the knowledge on effects of the provision of enrichment on these animals is...

Hocking, A. J., Elliot, D., Hua, J. et al. 2018. Administering fixed oral doses of curcumin to rats through voluntary consumption. JAALAS 57(5), 508–512.

Curcumin, a polyphenol derived from turmeric, has a wide variety of therapeutic benefits including antiinflammatory, antioxidative, and chemopreventative effects. Oral gavage is widely performed to administer curcumin in laboratory rodents in several experimental models. Although...

Peveler, J. L., Hickman, D. L. 2018. Effects of music enrichment on individually housed male New Zealand white rabbits. JAALAS 57(6), 695–697.

The beneficial effect of music has been demonstrated in many species. Although commercially available music CDs intended for use with rabbits are available, these enrichments have not been critically evaluated to determine whether they reduce...

Stachowicz, J., Gygax, L., Hillmann, E. et al. 2018. Dairy goats use outdoor runs of high quality more regardless of the quality of indoor housing. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 208, 22-30.

For dairy goats in loose housing, access to an outdoor run has potential welfare benefits as it provides additional space, enables spatial separation and may offer items representing behavioural enrichment for the goats (e.g. brush...

Raya, J., Neves Girardi , C. E., Hipólide, D. C. 2019. Corticosterone assimilation by a voluntary oral administration in palatable food to rats. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 22(1), 37-41.

Drug delivery in research on nonhuman animals in the laboratory is still challenging because it is usually invasive and stressful. Stress-free voluntary oral drug administration in water lacks precise control of dose and timing of...

Sparling, J. E., Baker, S. L., Bielajew, C. 2018. Effects of combined pre- and post-natal enrichment on anxiety-like, social, and cognitive behaviours in juvenile and adult rat offspring. Behavioural Brain Research 353, 40-50.

The pre- and post-natal periods are characterized by unrivalled growth and are sensitive to environmental changes. A correctly stimulating early environment is essential for developing natural behaviors and maintaining affective wellness. Five litters of rat...

Perdue, B. M., Beran, M. J., Washburn, D. A. 2018. A computerized testing system for primates: Cognition, welfare, and the Rumbaughx. Behavioural Processes 156, 37-50.

Innovations in apparatus technology come about for a variety of reasons such as the need to use the same methodology with various species, the opportunity to present dynamic and carefully controlled stimuli, the goal of...

Hankenson, F. C., Marx, J. O., Gordon, C. J. et al. 2018. Effects of rodent thermoregulation on animal models in the research environment. Comparative Medicine 68(6), 425–438.

To best promote animal wellbeing and the efficacy of biomedical models, scientific, husbandry, and veterinary professionals must consider the mechanisms, influences, and outcomes of rodent thermoregulation in contemporary research environments. Over the last 2 decades...

Heyworth, C., Olivo, D. 2018. Environmental and psychological enrichment for NHPs reimagined and repurposed. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 5(4) (December), 39-43.

This article describes creative enrichment ideas for nonhuman primates, including celery stalks embedded with seeds; paper rolled into tubes, braided and filled with fruit and seeds; pineapple crowns loaded with treats; dry spaghetti noodles coated...

Allen, C., Duggan, L., Fox, M. et al. 2018. Attempting enrichment harmonization across multiple sites and embracing our differences. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 5(4) (December), 48-51.

A glabal enrichment committee incorporates active members from each of the company’s 6 sites and works towards harmonization of enrichment practices. One of the hot topics is attempting to standardize mouse enrichment and social housing...

Byrd, R., Boyd, S., Buckmaster, C. 2018. Rat thunder jacket— A zen experience. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 6(3) (September), 55-57.

Germ-free rats are fairly uncommon, relative to germ-free mice, and restraining these animals safely and effectively for compound administration and blood collection can be challenging. There are many commercially available varieties of restraint devices, but...

Menke, C., Pisharath, H., Goodchild, L. et al. 2018. The use of enrichment to reduce fighting in male laboratory mice. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 6(1) (March), 44-45.

Typical husbandry solutions for aggressive mice are individual housing or separation into smaller groups. Individual housing is stressful to mice, while separation into smaller groups can increase housing-related costs for the researchers. To alleviate these...

Robison, L. S., Popescu, D. L., Anderson, M. E. et al. 2018. The effects of volume versus intensity of long-term voluntary exercise on physiology and behavior in C57/Bl6 mice. Physiology & Behavior 194, 218-232.

Cardiovascular exercise (CVE) is associated with healthy aging and reduced risk of disease in humans, with similar benefits seen in animals. Most rodent studies, however, have used shorter intervention periods of a few weeks to...

Gjendal, K., Lund Ottesen, J., Bratbo Sørensen, D. 2018. Does colour matter? Preference of mice for different colours of the house mouse igloo: An observational study. Scandinavian Journal of Laboratory Animal Science 44(6).

It is argued that mice have poor colour vision and are insensitive to the colour red, which they in theory perceive as dark. Therefore, the red tinted Bio-Serv Mouse Igloo® is used to provide mice...