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. 
Faraji, J., Karimi, M., Soltanpour, N. et al. 2018. Intergenerational sex-specific transmission of maternal social experience. Scientific Reports 8, 10529.

The social environment is a major determinant of individual stress response and lifetime health. The present study shows that (1) social enrichment has a significant impact on neuroplasticity and behaviour particularly in females; and (2)...

Nunamaker, E. A., Goldman, J. L., Adams, C. R. et al. 2018. Evaluation of analgesic efficacy of meloxicam and 2 formulations of buprenorphine after laparotomy in female Sprague-Dawley rats. JAALAS 57(5), 498–507.

Managing postoperative pain in rodents is an important part of any animal care and use program, and identifying an optimal analgesic plan for a surgical procedure is critical to providing for animal welfare. Opioids and...

Blankenberger, W. B., Weber, E. M., Chu, D. K. et al. 2018. Breaking up is hard to do: Does splitting cages of mice reduce aggression? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 206, 94-101.

Injurious aggression in group housed male laboratory mice is a common welfare issue that can also negatively affect study outcomes. Often, one mouse in the cage appears unwounded, and the current standard practice is to...

Thurston, S., Burlingame, L., Lester, P. A. et al. 2018. Methods of pairing and pair maintenance of New Zealand white rabbits (Oryctolagus Cuniculus) via behavioral ethogram, monitoring, and interventions. JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments) 133, e57267.

Though European rabbits are a social species, socially housing them can be challenging. Therefore, there must be a thorough understanding of behaviors and social structures of pair-housed laboratory rabbits. Here we present a protocol to...

Rytlewski, J. D., Childress, P. J., Scofield, D. C. et al. 2018. Cohousing male mice with and without segmental bone defects. Comparative Medicine 68(2), 131–138.

Spaceflight results in bone loss like that associated with osteoporosis or decreased weight-bearing (for example, high-energy trauma such as explosive injuries and automobile accidents). Thus, the unique spaceflight laboratory on the International Space Station presents...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Toyoshima, M., Yamada, K., Sugita, M. et al. 2018. Social enrichment improves social recognition memory in male rats. Animal Cognition 21(3), 345–351.

The social environment is thought to have a strong impact on cognitive functions. In the present study, we investigated whether social enrichment could affect rats’ memory ability using the “Different Objects Task (DOT),” in which...

Redfern, W. S., Tse, K., Grant, C. et al. 2017. Automated recording of home cage activity and temperature of individual rats housed in social groups: The Rodent Big Brother project. PLOS ONE 12(9), e0181068.

Measuring the activity and temperature of rats is commonly required in biomedical research. Conventional approaches necessitate single housing, which affects their behavior and wellbeing. We have used a subcutaneous radiofrequency identification (RFID) transponder to measure...

Barker, T. H., George, R. P., Howarth, G. S. et al. 2017. Assessment of housing density, space allocation and social hierarchy of laboratory rats on behavioural measures of welfare. PLOS ONE 12(9), e0185135.

Minimum space allowances for laboratory rats are legislated based on weight and stocking rates, with the understanding that increased housing density encourages crowding stress. However, there is little evidence for these recommendations, especially when considering...

Hestehave, S., Munro, G., Christensen, R. et al. 2017. Is there a reasonable excuse for not providing post-operative analgesia when using animal models of peripheral neuropathic pain for research purposes? PLOS ONE 12(11), e0188113.

Introduction: The induction of neuropathic pain-like behaviors in rodents often requires surgical intervention. This engages acute nociceptive signaling events that contribute to pain and stress post-operatively that from a welfare perspective demands peri-operative analgesic treatment...

Sommerville, R., Ruiz, R., Averós, X. 2017. A meta-analysis on the effects of the housing environment on the behaviour, mortality, and performance of growing rabbits. Animal Welfare 26(2), 223-238.

Although the number of rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) produced in Europe is important, they are under-represented in welfare research. Studies on the effects of housing conditions have focused on performance and mortality. We conducted a meta-analysis...

Wever, K. E., Geessink, f. J., Brouwer, M. A. E. et al. 2017. A systematic review of discomfort due to toe or ear clipping in laboratory rodents. Laboratory Animals 51(6), 583-600.

Toe clipping and ear clipping (also ear notching or ear punching) are frequently used methods for individual identification of laboratory rodents. These procedures potentially cause severe discomfort, which can reduce animal welfare and distort experimental...

Thomas, A. A., Detilleux, J., Sandersen, C. F. et al. 2017. Minimally invasive technique for intrathecal administration of morphine in rats: Practicality and antinociceptive properties. Laboratory Animals 51(5), 479-489.

The intrathecal (IT) route of administration represents a means to reduce the dose of morphine administered for analgesia, potentially minimizing interactions between opioid effects and experimental outcomes. Perceived technical difficulty, and previously described invasive methods...

Hestehave, S., Munro, G., Brønnum Pedersen, T. et al. 2017. Antinociceptive effects of voluntarily ingested buprenorphine in the hot-plate test in laboratory rats. Laboratory Animals 51(3), 264-272.

Researchers performing experiments on animals should always strive towards the refinement of experiments, minimization of stress and provision of better animal welfare. An adequate analgesic strategy is important to improve post-operative recovery and welfare in...

Castelhano-Carlos, M. J., Baumans, V., Sousa, N. 2017. PhenoWorld: Addressing animal welfare in a new paradigm to house and assess rat behaviour. Laboratory Animals 51(1), 36-43.

The use of animals is essential in biomedical research. The laboratory environment where the animals are housed has a major impact on them throughout their lives and influences the outcome of animal experiments. Therefore, there...

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...

Stella, J. L., Croney, C. C., Buffington, C. T. 2017. Behavior and welfare of domestic cats housed in cages larger than U.S. norm. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 20(3), 296-312.

The effect of providing additional floor space on cat behavior and welfare is not well documented. This study involved replication of an investigation of cats’ responses to enhanced cage and room environments using cages of...

DiVincenti, L. Jr., Rehrig, A. 2017. Social behavior of adult male New Zealand White rabbits housed in groups or pairs in the laboratory. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 20(1), 86-94.

Rabbits are usually singly housed in laboratories, but a new emphasis on providing social housing for social species has prompted exploration of alternative housing for this species. However, a paucity of literature on the social...

Lipták, B., Kaprinay, B., Gáspárová, Z. 2017. A rat-friendly modification of the non-invasive tail-cuff to record blood pressure. Lab Animal 46(6), 251-253.

In animal models, blood pressure measurement methods can be either invasive (direct) or non-invasive (indirect). The non-invasive alternative involves applying a tail-cuff for blood pressure measurement. Current standardized restraint methods involve confining the laboratory animal...

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...