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. 
Modlinska, K., Chrzanowska, A., Pisula, W. 2019. The impact of changeability of enriched environment on exploration in rats. Behavioural Processes 164, 78-85.

Although the positive effect of environmental enrichment on animals’ cognitive capacities is well-known, it remains unclear what role changeability plays in this context. Our study aims to analyse the impact of environmental changeability on the...

Wang, H., Li, Q, Tang, H. et al. 2019. The activated newborn neurons participate in enriched environment induced improvement of locomotor function in APP/PS1 mice. Brain and Behavior 9(7), e01316.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an age‐related neurodegenerative disorder. One of the pathological features of AD is neuronal loss in brain regions associated with cognition, particularly the hippocampus. An enriched environment (EE) can facilitate neuronal plasticity...

Scarola, S. J., Perdomo Trejo, J. R., Granger, M. E. et al. 2019. Immunomodulatory effects of stress and environmental enrichment in Long–Evans rats (Rattus norvegicus). Comparative Medicine 69(1), 35–47.

Stress can influence the secretion of neuroendocrine mediators, thereby exposing immune cells to altered signaling and interactions. Here we investigated the synergetic effect of stress and environmental enrichment on the immune response of Long–Evans rats...

Lee, L. Y., Lee, D., Ryu, H. et al. 2019. Capnography-guided endotracheal intubation as an alternative to existing intubation methods in rabbits. JAALAS 58(2), 240-245.

Rabbits provide a unique challenge for routine endotracheal intubation in clinical practice because of various distinctive anatomic and physiologic features. Many previously proposed methods for endotracheal intubation in rabbits are limited by several factors, including...

Falkenberg, M. K., Teilmann, A. C., Henriksen, T. et al. 2019. Clinical, physiologic, and behavioral evaluation of permanently catheterized NMRI mice. JAALAS 58(3), 380-389.

Vascular catheterization is becoming a popular technique in laboratory rodents, facilitating repetitive blood sampling and infusion in individual animals. In mice, catheterization is complicated by their small body size, which may increase the risk of...

Animal Welfare Institute. 2019. Technician spotlight: Jessica Brekke’s “rat hammock” design. AWI Quarterly 68(4) Winter, 9.

This article describes how to make an inexpensive 'rat hammock' out of PVC tunnels for standard-housed laboratory rats.

Animal Welfare Institute. 2019. Let’s get serious about animal play. AWI Quarterly 68(3) Fall, 19.

This article describes the importance of providing laboratory animals with opportunities to engage in play, and provides a few practical ideas for how to do this.

Animal Welfare Institute. 2019. Rabbit enrichment items: Getting bang for the buck (and doe). AWI Quarterly 68(1) Spring, 24-25.

A recent discussion on the Laboratory Animal Refinement and Enrichment Forum (LAREF) focused on new enrichment ideas for rabbits. Contributors shared their experiences about which toys and treats get rave reviews from rabbits.

Windsor, Z., Bate, S. T. 2019. Assessing the safety and suitability of nesting material for singly housed mice with surgically fitted head plates. Heliyon 5(7), e02097.

Nesting material, for example shredded paper, is a common form of enrichment for laboratory mice. However, there has been limited research performed regarding its apparent safety when given to mice fitted with exteriorised devices such...

Leenaars, C. H. C., Pels, E. G. M., Joosten, R. N. J. M. A. et al. 2019. Wistar rats do not show preference for either of two commonly used nutritionally sound food rewards in a T-maze. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 31, 22-27.

Food rewards are commonly used as positive reinforcement in rodent behavioral experiments. Bioserv dustless precision pellets and Noyes formula P precision pellets are both used for this purpose in behavioral experiments in multiple laboratories, as...

Leidinger, C. S., Thöne-Reineke, C., Baumgart, N. et al. 2019. Environmental enrichment prevents pup mortality in laboratory mice. Laboratory Animals 53(1), 53–62.

Early death of mouse pups is a commonly known problem in breeding mice colonies, which is still often regarded as ‘normal’ or is even overlooked due to the counting procedures applied. As reduced breeding performance...

Nosaka, N., Crother, T. R., Chen, S. et al. 2019. Optimal tube length of orotracheal intubation for mice. Laboratory Animals 53(1), 79–83.

Endotracheal tube (ETT) management is an essential technique in handling mice with mechanical ventilators. Malposition into bronchi causes not only lethal complications for them but also less efficient mechanical ventilation. However, in general, it is...

Sherrill, C., Kavanagh, K. 2019. Fight Club: Using housing conditions to curb male cage aggression. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 7(1) (March), 38-40.

Those who have worked with C57BL/6 males know how aggressive they can be towards their cage mates. We poured over academic journals, reading every article we could find regarding male home cage aggression. Three articles...

Heyworth, C., Owens, D. 2019. Eureka! Enhanced water recipe and enrichment for oocyte quality and embryo development in the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis). Laboratory Animal Science Professional 7(1) (March), 43-45.

Husbandry staff set a goal to develop a health monitoring program for a Xenopus laevis colony that included not only specific pathogen freedom, but wellness. This article describes environmental enrichment and a water recipe for...

MacDuff, A., Loera, F., Adamson, T. W. 2019. Use of more naturalistic nesting material helps decrease food shredding in mice. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 7(1) (March), 46-48.

Shredding of feed (food grinding or food wasting) is a common behavior among certain strains of mice. It is seen in both captive and wild rodents and may either be an abnormal behavior or a...

Lynch, C. A., Porter, B., Butler, T. R. 2019. Access to voluntary running wheel exercise: Prevention of anxiety-like behavior in chronically stressed rats, but potentiation of ethanol intake/preference. Physiology & Behavior 206, 118-124.

The current study tested the effect of voluntary running on future anxiety-like behavior, physiological response to stress, and ethanol intake/preference, while including a chronically stressed group and healthy group housed conspecifics. When given concurrently, voluntary...

Cox, R. J., Nol, P., Ellis, C. K. et al. 2019. Research with agricultural animals and wildlife. ILAR Journal 60(1), 66-73.

In fiscal year 2016, agricultural animals such as swine, sheep, goats, and cattle represented 10% of the 820 812 animals used in USDA-regulated research. In addition to traditional agricultural animals, research studies using captive wildlife...

Arnaud-James, L. 2019. The effects of structural and feeding enrichments on captive western hoolock gibbons at the rehabilitation and release centre HURO Programme, India. Canopy 20(1), 15-18.

The aim of this study was to assess the impacts of different enrichments in various enclosures in a gibbon rehabilitation centre in the northeast of India. The results show a greater interaction with the feeding...

White, K. 2019. Effects of captivity on the activity budgets of lar gibbons (Hylobates lar). Canopy 20(1), 43-45.

The keeping of gibbons in a captive environment and recreating an appropriate habitat is essential to enable them to exhibit species-specific behaviour. This research was designed to provide baseline data on the activity budgets of...

McMillan, F. D. (ed). 2019. Mental Health and Well-being in Animals (2nd ed). CABI, Wallingford, UK.

This second edition is fully revised, expanded, and comprehensively updated with the most current knowledge about the full array of mental health issues seen in animals. Written by key opinion leaders, internationally-recognized experts and specialists...

Morano, R., Hoskins, O., Smith, B. L. et al. 2019. Loss of environmental enrichment elicits behavioral and physiological dysregulation in female rats. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 12, 287.

Chronic stress drives behavioral and physiological changes associated with numerous psychiatric disease states. In rodents, the vast majority of chronic stress models involve imposition of external stressors, whereas in humans stress is often driven by...

Schmitt, V. 2019. Implementing portable touchscreen-setups to enhance cognitive research and enrich zoo-housed animals. Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research 7(2), 50-58.

To understand the evolutionary development of cognition, comparing the cognitive capacities of different animal species is essential. However, getting access to various species with sufficient sample sizes can be very challenging. Zoos, housing large ranges...

Makowska, I. J., Weary, D. M. 2019. A good life for laboratory rodents? ILAR Journal 60(3), 373-388.

Most would agree that animals in research should be spared “unnecessary” harm, pain, or distress, and there is also growing interest in providing animals with some form of environmental enrichment. But is this the standard...

Tallent, B. R., Law, L. M., Rowe, R. K. et al. 2018. Partial cage division significantly reduces aggressive behavior in male laboratory mice. Laboratory Animals 52(4), 384 - 393.

Aggression in mice often results in injury leading to unplanned euthanasia or the initiation of protocols to isolate animals, thereby increasing research costs and straining resources. Here, we tested if adding a partial cage divider...

Cooke, G. M. 2018. Use of a translucent refuge for Xenopus tropicalis with the aim of improving welfare. Laboratory Animals 52(3), 304-307.

Xenopus tropicalis is an increasingly important animal model in a variety of biological research fields. In many countries legislation exists to promote and increase welfare wherever possible, including the ability to view animals during daily...