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. 
Leduc, R. Y. M., Rauw, G., Baker, G. B. et al. 2017. What goes around can come around: An unexpected deleterious effect of using mouse running wheels for environmental enrichment. JAALAS 56(2), 194-201.

Environmental enrichment items such as running wheels can promote the wellbeing of laboratory mice. Growing evidence suggests that wheel running simulates exercise effects in many mouse models of human conditions, but this activity also might...

Brenneis, C., Westhof, A., Holschbach, J. et al. 2017. Automated tracking of motion and body weight for objective monitoring of rats in colony housing. JAALAS 56(1), 18-31.

Living together in large social communities within an enriched environment stimulates self-motivated activity in rats. We developed a modular housing system in which a single unit can accommodate as many as 48 rats and contains...

Kleefeld, S., Bannerton, K., Kelly, J.2017. Effect of moderate environmental enrichment on commonly used behavioural tests in rats. Animal Technology and Welfare 16(1), 75-76.

The environment that laboratory animals are housed in should reflect their natural habitats in a manner that can satisfy their innate physiological and behavioural needs. This includes nest building, hiding, exploring and foraging. Providing environmental...

Jones, T., Robinson, M., Leach, M. et al. 2017. Ultrasonic vocalisation as a measure of positive welfare in rats. Animal Technology and Welfare 16(2), 127-129.

Studies of animal welfare in laboratory animals have historically relied on the measurement of negative indicators rather than the assessment of positive indicators of welfare. Practical methods of welfare assessment are required to allow refinement...

Devenport, M., Levent, S., Storer, R. 2017. Rabbits housed in pens: Do they have an enrichment preference? Animal Technology and Welfare 16(2), 130-132.

Since the antibody production facility at Envigo RMS opened in 2015 we have been offering our rabbits a variety of disposable and non-disposable enrichment in a floor pen arrangement. There is a perception that our...

Holmes, J., Waters, D., Maisonave, I. et al. 2017. Social interaction for non-sibling pregnant New Zealand white rabbits on reproductive toxicology. Animal Technology and Welfare 16(2), 139-141.

Rabbits are gregarious animals that live in social groups in the wild so individually housing our animals, while meeting the present scientific objectives, restricts their natural social behaviour. How to meet the social needs of...

Holgate, J. Y., Garcia, H., Chatterjee, S. et al. 2017. Social and environmental enrichment has different effects on ethanol and sucrose consumption in mice. Brain and Behavior 7(8), e00767.

Factors leading to the harmful consumption of substances, like alcohol and sucrose, involve a complex interaction of genes and the environment. While we cannot control the genes we inherit, we can modify our environment. Understanding...

Mármol, F., Sánchez, J., Torres, M. N. et al. 2017. Environmental enrichment in the absence of wheel running produces beneficial behavioural and anti-oxidative effects in rats. Behavioural Processes 144, 66-71.

The effects of early environmental enrichment (EE) when solving a simple spatial task in adult male rats were assessed. After weaning, rats were housed in pairs in enriched or standard cages (EE and control groups)...

Stamenkovic, V., Milenkovic, I., Galjak, N. et al. 2017. Enriched environment alters the behavioral profile of tenascin-C deficient mice. Behavioural Brain Research 331, 241-253.

Tenascin-C (TnC) is an extracellular matrix glycoprotein implicated in a variety of processes ranging from brain development to synaptic plasticity in the adult vertebrates. Although the role of the TnC gene in regulation of behavior...

Tucker, R. D. 2017. Woodchuck College. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 5(2) (June), 33-36.

Marmota monax is a valuable laboratory animal species used in studies of Hepatitis B virus (HBV), food intake, obesity, hibernation, and circannual cycles. This article describes the woodchuck’s (also known as groundhog) natural behavior and...

Danner, L., Rao, V. P. 2017. Should rat enrichment devices be used beyond a month? Laboratory Animal Science Professional 5(1) (March), 41-43.

Enrichment devices made of materials such as nylon and wood are common gnawing devices used in animal facilities. In most institutions, these devices are used for a limited period and then discarded. At Pfizer, enrichment...

Rossi, N. 2017. The other 3Rs: Reduce, reuse, and recycle for rodents. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 5(1) (March), 44-46.

Since funding can be scarce, I seek novel and economical ways to promote the psychological wellbeing of the animals through environmental enrichment and allow research animals to express species-specific behaviors and control their environment to...

Smith, B. L., Lyons, C. E., Correa, F. G. et al. 2017. Behavioral and physiological consequences of enrichment loss in rats. Psychoneuroendocrinology 77, 37-46.

Significant loss produces the highest degree of stress and compromised well-being in humans. Current rodent models of stress involve the application of physically or psychologically aversive stimuli, but do not address the concept of loss...

Grant, C., Marks, L., Prior, H. 2017. Provision of food and water in rodent whole body plethysmography safety pharmacology respiratory studies – Impact on animal welfare and data quality. Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods 88(Part 1), 79-84.

Introduction: We evaluated the feasibility of providing food and water to rodents during whole body plethysmography (WBP) studies as a welfare improvement to standard conditions. Methods: Male Han Wistar rats or CD1 mice (n=8) were...

Li, K. A., Lund, E. T., Voigt, J.W. 2016. The impact of early postnatal environmental enrichment on maternal care and offspring behaviour following weaning. Behavioural Processes 122, 51-58.

The early postnatal period is a sensitive period in rodents as behavioural systems are developing and maturing during this time. However, relatively little information is available about the impact of environmental enrichment on offspring behaviour...

Pinnell, R. C., Almajidy, R. K., Hofmann, U. G. 2016. Versatile 3-D printed headstage implant for group housing of rodents. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 257, 134-138.

An unfavourable yet necessary side-effect of stereotaxic surgery involves the social isolation of post-surgery rats, in order to protect their wound site or skull-mounted implant from damage. Social isolation can cause a myriad of behavioural...

Makowska, I. J., Weary, D. M. 2016. Differences in anticipatory behaviour between rats (Rattus norvegicus) housed in standard versus semi-naturalistic laboratory environments. PLOS ONE 11(1), e0147595.

Laboratory rats are usually kept in relatively small cages, but research has shown that they prefer larger and more complex environments. The physiological, neurological and health effects of standard laboratory housing are well established, but...

Weaver, S. R., Cronick, C. M., Prichard, A. P. et al. 2016. Use of the RatLoft decreases pup mortality in lactating mice. Laboratory Animals 50(5), 370-378.

Lactating mice in laboratory conditions are thought to be under considerable stress. Dams may manifest this stress through a decrease in milk yield and/or increase in infanticide. The purpose of this study was to examine...

Karrberg, L., Andersson, L., Kastenmayer, R. J. et al. 2016. Refinement of habituation procedures in diet-induced obese mice. Laboratory Animals 50(5), 397-399.

Orogastric gavage, while a common method for delivering experimental substances in mice, has been shown to induce stress. To minimize the associated stress with this procedure, sham gavage prior to the start of experiment is...

Jang, Y., Park, Y. E., Yun, C.-W. et al. 2016. The vest-collar as a rodent collar to prevent licking and scratching during experiments. Laboratory Animals 50(4), 296-304.

Various types of restraint collars have been used for research animals, and the Elizabethan collar (E-collar) is the most commonly used. However, animals can be choked by the E-collar or they tend to remove it...

Byrd, C. P., Winnicker, C., Gaskill, B. N. 2016. Instituting dark-colored cover to improve central space use within guinea pig enclosure. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 19(4), 408-413.

Domestic guinea pigs (Cavia aperea f. porcellus) in laboratories have been shown to actively avoid the centers of their cages. This experiment tested a novel, dark-colored “shader” placed over the central portion of a cage...

Makowska, I. J., Weary, D. M. 2016. The importance of burrowing, climbing and standing upright for laboratory rats. Royal Society Open Science 3, 160136.

Standard laboratory cages prevent rats (Rattus norvegicus) from performing many behaviours that they perform in the wild, but little is known about how this may affect their welfare. The aims of this study were (i)...

Gardiner, P. 2016. Going outside ASPA guidelines. Animal Technology and Welfare 15(1), 47-52.

This article will discuss an improved and refined technique used for working and caring for a group of diabetic mice. As a team of animal technologists, academics and named veterinary surgeon, we developed a new...

Enser, S. 2016. Comparison of housing and welfare of group housed rabbits. Animal Technology and Welfare 15(1), 77-79.

This poster is based on welfare improvements gained from group housing rabbits in floor pens in the new Antibody Production Facility with a focus on development, behaviours and environmental enrichment in both male and female...

Atkinson, R. 2016. Do different strains prefer different enrichments? Animal Technology and Welfare 15(2), 133-135.

This study was aimed at discovering if C57BL/6J and BALB/c mice have a preferred type of enrichment. The findings will help identify the right type of enrichment for each strain and ultimately aid in keeping...