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. 

An effort to refine rodent blood collection techniques resulted in an examination of alternative methodologies to improve animal welfare and sample quality. Disease model or repeated sample collection resulted in inadequate sample volume, occasional hemolysis...

Advances in bioanalytic methods allow for accurate plasma drug level measurement in small sample volumes. Decreased sample volumes enable serial blood sample collection from one rodent, rather than terminal or sparse sampling from multiple rodents...

Consistently accurate intravenous tail vein administration of radiopharmaceuticals in anesthetized mice is a critical component of successful PET/CT imaging in the preclinical setting. Injectable anesthetics are often not suitable for PET imaging and commercially available...

The mouse is a commonly used species in liver research such as oncology, toxicology, and disease models. The ability to collect specimens of liver is vital to such research. Such studies require either a major...

Abnormal behavior, ranging from motor stereotypies to self‐injurious behavior, has been documented in captive nonhuman primates, with risk factors including nursery rearing, single housing, and veterinary procedures. Much of this research has focused on macaque...

A previous study showed that blood sampling either automatically, through a catheter, or by puncture of the tail vein is less stressful than facial vein phlebotomy in mice. We decided to investigate how facial vein...

Handling small animals for veterinary and experimental procedures can negatively affect animal wellbeing. We hypothesized that playful handling (tickling) would decrease stress associated with repeated injections in adult laboratory rats, especially those with prior tickling...

Biotelemetry can contribute towards reducing animal numbers and suffering in disciplines including physiology, pharmacology and behavioural research. However, the technique can also cause harm to animals, making biotelemetry a ‘refinement that needs refining’. Current welfare...

Conventional bleeding of small laboratory animals is often associated with stress and injuries that can cause haematomas, inflammation and ultimately the death of animals under investigation. Here, we used faecal glucocorticoid metabolites as an indicator...

Repeated blood sampling from laboratory animals is desirable in certain experimental designs and also for reducing the number of animals used in research. Biochemical methods for analysing blood samples require only small blood volumes to...

Rabbit hypnosis or “trancing” was a common restraint technique used for minor procedures such as: nail clipping, tooth trimming, eye exams, and subcutaneous injections. In years past the technique was originally used on pet rabbits...

This review will examine how individual differences in temperament might affect, or be affected by, behavioral management practices for captive primates. Measuring temperament may help us predict the outcome of social introductions. It can also...

This study compared 4 bedding substrates (corncob, paper, hardwood chip, and wire-bottomed cage inserts) and 2 routes of blood collection (lateral tail vein and retroorbital sinus) in 6 male C57BL/6NCrl mice. Mice were maintained with...

Blood sampling is one of the most common procedures performed on laboratory animals as part of scientific research. As an ongoing commitment, our institution has identified a need to improve the current blood sampling method...

A large number of methods for obtaining blood from mice have been published. In our facility, saphenous venepuncture is considered the method of choice for bleeding mice and is believed to have a number of...

The discussion was started by the following questions: "Is the squeeze-back mechanism more or less stressful than the pole and collar system for removing a macaque from his cage for an IM (intramuscular) injection?" and...

Collection of blood from the submandibular vein allows simple and rapid processing of many animals without anesthesia and facilitates rapid recovery with no signs of pain and discomfort in the mice. Here we compared the...

When studying pharmacokinetics in rabbits, researchers must often take multiple blood samples from conscious rabbits. Researchers usually collect these samples via the auricular vein, typically through a port or an indwelling catheter. The authors have...

For oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in mice, multiple blood samples need to be taken within a few hours from conscious mice. Today, a number of essential parameters may be analysed on very small amounts...

Circulating cortisol levels are often used to assess the biological stress response in captive primates. Some methods commonly used to collect blood samples may alter the stress response. As such, noninvasive means to analyze cortisol...

The question was asked: "Rodents are often restrained for data collection procedures, such as blood collection and injection, by coaxing them into tubes, for example syringe cylinders or perspex tubes. What can be done to...

It was found that heart rate (HR), and to a lesser extent also body temperature (BT), parallels plasma corticosterone (pCORT) values after subjecting the animals to different methods of restraint. Secondly, the acute stress response...

The question was asked: "In your own experience, what is the least disturbing technique - from the subject's point of view! - of blood collection for rodents?" In summary, it is fair to conclude the...

The objective of this study was to test the hypotheses that female rats are stressed by being in the same room as animals subjected to common husbandry and experimental procedures and that the level of...

A survey of 75 biomedical articles dealing with stress-dependent blood parameters in caged primates revealed that the conditions under which blood collection occurred were in most cases [72%] described either not at all or so...