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. 
Reinhardt, V. (ed.) 2020. It’s Okay to Cry - Discussions by the Laboratory Animal Refinement & Enrichment Forum [LAREF], Volume V. Animal Welfare Institute, Washington, DC.

This is the 5th volume of selected discussions that took place on the electronic Laboratory Animal Refinement & Enrichment Forum between February 2016 and December 2019. The forum was created in October 2002; it allows...

Eshar, D., Beaufrère, H. 2020. Anesthetic effects of alfaxalone–ketamine, alfaxalone–ketamine–dexmedetomidine, and alfaxalone–butorphanol–midazolam administered intramuscularly in five striped palm squirrels (Funambulus pennantii). JAALAS 59(4), 384-392.

Injectable anesthesia protocols for five striped palm squirrels (Funambulus pennantii) are poorly described in the literature. In this study, male intact squirrels received intramuscular injections of either alfaxalone (6 mg/kg) and ketamine (40 mg/ kg...

Gergye, C. H., Zhao, Y., Moore, R. et al. 2020. A comparison of ketamine or etomidate combined with xylazine for intraperitoneal anesthesia in four mouse strains. JAALAS 59(5), 519-530.

Intraperitoneal (IP) injection is a common route of anesthetic administration in mice. Ketamine-xylazine (KX) anesthesia is one of the most widely used IP protocols, but has limitations. Etomidate is an alternative to ketamine that has...

West, S. E., Lee, J. C., Johns, T. N. et al. 2020. Intraperitoneal alfaxalone and alfaxalone–dexmedetomidine anesthesia in Sprague–Dawley rats (Rattus norvegicus). JAALAS 59(5), 531-538.

Due to their unpredictability and variable effects, injectable anesthetic regimens in laboratory rodent species warrant refinement. In our study we sought to evaluate alfaxalone, which has gained recent popularity in veterinary medicine, alone and in...

Ambar, N., Eshar, D., Shrader, T. C. et al. 2020. Anesthetic effects of intramuscular alfaxalone–ketamine in naked mole rats (Heterocephalus glaber). JAALAS 59(5), 539-545.

In this study, adult intact male and female (n = 10) naked mole rats (Heterocephalus glaber) were anesthetized by using a combination of ketamine (20 mg/kg IM), and alfaxalone (4.0 mg/kg IM). Induction and recovery...

Klune, C. B., Robbins, H. N. K., Leung, V. et al. 2020. Hypothermia during general anesthesia interferes with pain assessment in laboratory rats (Rattus norvegicus). JAALAS 59(6), 719-725.

Accurate pain assessment methods are necessary to ensure animal welfare and reliable data collection in animal research. The Rat Grimace Scale (RGS), a facial expression pain scale, allows effective identification of pain. However, the potential...

Scarborough, J., Mueller, F., Arban, R. et al. 2020. Preclinical validation of the micropipette-guided drug administration (MDA) method in the maternal immune activation model of neurodevelopmental disorders. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity 88, 461-470.

Pharmacological treatments in laboratory rodents remain a cornerstone of preclinical psychopharmacological research and drug development. There are numerous ways in which acute or chronic pharmacological treatments can be implemented, with each method having certain advantages...

Ho, H., Fowle, A., Coetzee, M. et al. 2020. An inhalation anaesthesia approach for neonatal mice allowing streamlined stereotactic injection in the brain. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 342, 108824.

Background: Investigating brain function requires tools and techniques to visualise, modify and manipulate neuronal tissue. One powerful and popular method is intracerebral injection of customised viruses, allowing expression of exogenous transgenes. This technique is a...

Woodard, C. L., Nasrallah, W. B., Samiei, B. V. et al. 2020. PiDose: An open-source system for accurate and automated oral drug administration to group-housed mice. Scientific Reports 10, 11584.

Drug treatment studies in laboratory mice typically employ manual administration methods such as injection or gavage, which can be time-consuming to perform over long periods and cause substantial stress in animals. These stress responses may...

Raillard, M., Detotto, C., Grepper, S. et al. 2019. Anaesthetic and perioperative management of 14 male New Zealand white rabbits for calvarial bone surgery. Animals 9(11), 896.

Calvarial bone surgery on rabbits is frequently performed. This report aims to document a simple and practical anaesthetic and perioperative management for this procedure. Fourteen male New Zealand white rabbits were included in the study...

Krall, C., Glass, S., Dancourt, G. et al. 2019. Behavioural anxiety predisposes rabbits to intra-operative apnoea and cardiorespiratory instability. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 221, 104875.

Rabbits are prone to complications from both anaesthesia and anxiety. Given that anxiety can often impact quality of anaesthesia, we developed a novel cage-side anxiety assessment, and sought to determine whether it correlated to pre-...

Stevens, C., Hawkins, P., Lovell-Badge, R. et al. 2019. Report of the 2018 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent and Rabbit Welfare Group meeting. Animal Technology and Welfare 18(2), 81-91.

The RSPCA/UFAW Rodent (and now Rabbit) Working Group has held a one-day meeting every autumn for the last 25 years, so that its members can discuss current welfare research, exchange views on welfare issues and...

Erickson, R. L., Blevins, C. E., De Souza Dyer, C. et al. 2019. Alfaxalone-xylazine anesthesia in laboratory mice (Mus musculus). JAALAS 58(1), 30-39.

Since its recent reformulation, alfaxalone has gained popularity as an injectable veterinary anesthetic, including promising studies demonstrating the use of alfaxalone-xylazine for anesthesia in mice. Here we sought to expand these studies by testing additional...

Jiron, J. M., Mendieta Calle, J. L., Castillo, E. J. et al. 2019. Comparison of isoflurane, ketamine-dexmedetomidine, and ketamine-xylazine for general anesthesia during oral procedures in rice rats (Oryzomys palustris). JAALAS 58(1), 40-49.

Rice rats (Oryzomys palustris) are an unconventional laboratory species that has been used to study photoperiodicity, periodontitis, and osteonecrosis of the jaw. Interventional procedures that require anesthesia, including oral procedures, are sometimes necessary in preclinical...

Browning, G. R., Eshar, D., Beaufrere, H. 2019. Comparison of dexmedetomidine-ketamine-midazolam and isoflurane for anesthesia of black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus). JAALAS 58(1), 50-57.

Few studies evaluate anesthesia in black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus). Isoflurane inhalant anesthesia is used in this species most commonly, but injectable protocols are poorly described. Here we compared the physiologic effects, including anesthetic depth...

Darbyshire, A. K., Oliver, K. H., Dupont, W. D. et al. 2019. Anesthesia and euthanasia of brine shrimp (Artemia franciscana). JAALAS 58(1), 58-63.

Invertebrates are often overlooked as laboratory animals, yet they are commonly used in toxicology, developmental, cellular and molecular biology, and radiation studies with euthanasia as an endpoint. Little is known regarding appropriate euthanasia methods for...

Bauer, C., Schillinger, U., Brandl, J. et al. 2019. Comparison of pre-emptive butorphanol or metamizole with ketamine +medetomidine and s-ketamine + medetomidine anaesthesia in improving intraoperative analgesia in mice. Laboratory Animals 53(5), 459–469.

In accordance with the ‘refinement’ component of the 3Rs, the primary aim of this study was to investigate and compare ketamine + medetomidine (KM) and s-ketamine + medetomidine (SKM) anaesthetic protocols in C57BL/6J mice (both sexes). We sought to...

Gjendal, K., Lund Ottesen, J., Olsson, I. A. S. et al. 2019. Burrowing and nest building activity in mice after exposure to grid floor, isoflurane or ip injections. Physiology & Behavior 206, 59-66.

Burrowing and nest building are examples of highly motivated innate behaviours in rodents. Assessments based on these behaviours can be used as non-invasive indicators of pain, distress and suffering. In this study, we investigated the...

Mechelinck, M., Kupp, C., Krüger, J. C. et al. 2019. Oxygen inhalation improves postoperative survival in ketamine-xylazine anaesthetised rats: An observational study. PLOS ONE 14(12), e0226430.

A simple but reliable and safe anaesthetic procedure is required for surgical interventions in small rodents. Combined ketamine and xylazine injections are often used in rats for less invasive surgery, possibly with spontaneous breathing and...

Ritchie, A., Collier, P., Clare, P. et al. 2019. Food for thought: The development of drug loaded diets improve both science and welfare. Animal Technology and Welfare 18(3), 222-224.

In our facility, we use several hormone dependent tumour models with supplementation delivered via slow release subcutaneously implanted pellets, implanted via trochar. For example, breast tumours which rely on 17-β-Estradiol. Administration of E2 supplementation can...

ter Horst, E. N., Krijnen, P. A. J., Flecknell, P. et al. 2018. Sufentanil–medetomidine anaesthesia compared with fentanyl/fluanisone–midazolam is associated with fewer ventricular arrhythmias and death during experimental myocardial infarction in rats and limits infarct size following reperfusion. Laboratory Animals 52(3), 271-279.

To improve infarct healing following myocardial infarction in humans, therapeutic interventions can be applied during the inflammatory response. Animal models are widely used to study this process. However, induction of MI in rodents is associated...

Schuster, C. J., Pang, D. S. J. 2018. Forced-air pre-warming prevents peri-anaesthetic hypothermia and shortens recovery in adult rats. Laboratory Animals 52(2), 142-151.

General anaesthesia disrupts thermoregulation in mammals, which can cause hypothermia. Decreases in core body temperature of 1℃ cause significant postoperative complications in humans, and peri-anaesthetic hypothermia in mice increases data variability, which can potentially increase...

Khoo, S. Y.-S., Lay, B. P. P., Joya, J. et al. 2018. Local anaesthetic refinement of pentobarbital euthanasia reduces abdominal writhing without affecting immunohistochemical endpoints in rats. Laboratory Animals 52(2), 152-162.

Sodium pentobarbital is a commonly used agent for euthanizing laboratory rats, however its high pH can cause abdominal discomfort after intraperitoneal injection. Previous studies suggest that the addition of a local anaesthetic may alleviate this...

Smith, B. D., Vail, K. J., Carroll, G. L. et al. 2018. Comparison of etomidate, benzocaine, and MS222 anesthesia with and without subsequent flunixin meglumine analgesia in African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis). JAALAS 57(2), 202-209.

Often few alternative anesthetics for exotic species are available, due to the small numbers of these animals used in research. In this study, we evaluated the depth and duration of anesthesia in Xenopus laevis after...

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...