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. 
Golledge, H., Richardson, C. (Eds.) 2024. The UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management of Laboratory and Other Research Animals (9th ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. 1040 p.

The latest edition of the seminal reference on the care and management of laboratory and research animals. The newly revised ninth edition of The UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management of Laboratory and Other...

Fitzwater, A., Zhang, L. 2024. A cost-effective restraint method for safer subcutaneous scruff injections and reducing stress in mice and handlers. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 12(1) (January/February), 52-53.

Subcutaneous injection is a vital technique in mouse-based biomedical research. Compared to other injections, the subcutaneous method poses fewer technical challenges and reduces acute toxicity risks due to slower absorption. Several suitable subcutaneous injection sites...

Song, Y., Xie, S. 2024. Effects of substrate roughening on the swimming performance of Schizothorax wangchiachii (Fang, 1936) in the Heishui River: Implications for vertical slot fishway design. Journal of Fish Biology 104(2), 473–483.

Re-establishing the natural connectivity of rivers using fishways may mitigate the unfavourable effects of dam construction on riverine biodiversity and freshwater fish populations. Knowledge of the swimming performance of target species in specific regions is...

Wang, Q., Wang, Y., Tian, Y. et al. 2024. Social environment enrichment alleviates anxiety-like behavior in mice: Involvement of the dopamine system. Behavioural Brain Research 456, 114687.

Rearing environment plays a vital role in maintaining physical and mental health of both animals and humans. Plenty of studies have proved that physical environment enrichment in adolescence has protective effects on emotion, social behavior...

Xu, C., Qiu, N., Yu, F. et al. 2024. The effect of isolation on laboratory rare minnow (Gobiocypris rarus): Growth, behavior and physiology. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 271, 106153.

Laboratory fish play an important role in modern scientific research. More and more researchers have begun to pay attention to the other living environment except the physical and chemical factors of the water body, because...

Robinson, L. M., Weiss, A. (Eds.) 2023. Nonhuman Primate Welfare: From History, Science, and Ethics to Practice. Springer, Cham, Switzerland. 671 p.

This volume reviews the broad topic of welfare in nonhuman primates under human care. Chapters detail the history of primates in captivity, ethical and legal issues surrounding the use of nonhuman primates as entertainment or...

Almeida, M. M., Cabrita, E., Fatsini, E. 2023. The use of sand substrate modulates dominance behaviour and brain gene expression in a flatfish species. Animals 13(6), 978.

Physical complexity adds physical enrichment to rearing conditions. This enrichment promotes fish welfare and reduces detrimental characteristics that fish develop in captivity. Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis) is an important species for European aquaculture, where it...

Bartlett, A., Grinsted, L., Freeman, M. S. 2023. Behaviour, furnishing and vertical space use of captive callimico (Callimico goeldii): Implications for welfare. Animals 13(13), 2147.

Provision of optimal captive care should be supported by species-specific evidence. Callimico (Callimico goeldii) is a small South American callitrichid primate. This study sought to address gaps in species-specific knowledge and captive management research by...

Eraslan, E., Castelhano-Carlos, M. J., Amorim, L. et al. 2023. Home-cage behavior is impacted by stress exposure in rats. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 17, 1195011.

Being social animals, rats exhibit a range of social behaviors that help them build social bonds and maintain group cohesion. Behavior is influenced by multiple factors, including stress exposure, and the expression of the impact...

Hernández-Arteaga, E., Ågmo, A. 2023. Seminatural environments for rodent behavioral testing: A representative design improving animal welfare and enhancing replicability. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 17, 1192213.

The low replicability of scientific studies has become an important issue. One possible cause is low representativeness of the experimental design employed. Already in the 1950’s, Egon Brunswick pointed out that experimental setups ideally should...

Hobbiesiefken, U., Urmersbach, B., Jaap, A. et al. 2023. Rating enrichment items by female group-housed laboratory mice in multiple binary choice tests using an RFID-based tracking system. PLOS ONE 18(1), e0278709.

Laboratory mice spend most of their lives in cages, not experiments, so improving housing conditions is a first-choice approach to improving their welfare. Despite the increasing popularity of enrichment, little is known about the benefits...

Kleinhappel, T. K., Pike, T. W., Burman, O. H. P. 2023. Changes in group behaviour in response to a preferred environment reflect positive affect. Scientific Reports 13(1), 10576.

When observed in their preferred environments, animals display behavioural changes, such as an increase in resting or a reduction in agonism, suggestive of positive affect and improved welfare. However, most studies focus on the behaviour...

Łapiński, S., Niedbała, P., Markowska, K. et al. 2023. The effects of age, size, and cage complexity on the behaviour of farmed female chinchillas (Chinchilla lanigera). Scientific Reports 13(1), 6108.

Even though chinchillas have been farmed for a century, there are not many studies concerning their behaviour in captivity or their optimal housing conditions, both of which are important factors in the assessment of their...

Lee, G.-H., Kim, K., Jo, W. 2023. Stress evaluation of mouse husbandry environments for improving laboratory animal welfare. Animals 13(2), 249.

Animal welfare is recognized as essential for the coexistence of humans and animals. Considering the increased demand and interest in animal welfare, many methods for improving animal welfare are being devised, but which method reduces...

Marquardt, A. E., VanRyzin, J. W., Fuquen, R. W. et al. 2023. Social play experience in juvenile rats is indispensable for appropriate socio-sexual behavior in adulthood in males but not females. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 16, 1076765.

Social play is a dynamic and rewarding behavior abundantly expressed by most mammals during the juvenile period. While its exact function is debated, various rodent studies on the effects of juvenile social isolation suggest that...

Novák, J., Frynta, D., Nováková, D. et al. 2023. Social deprivation in maternal mouthbrooders Tropheus sp. “Caramba” (Teleostei: Cichlidae) decreases the success rate of reproduction and survival rate of fish fry. Scientific Reports 13(1), 8284.

Early offspring separation from mothers causes social deprivation. Mouthbrooding, when eggs and fry are incubated in the buccal cavity of the parent, is one of the reproductive strategies in fish. The mother is the incubating...

Scatterty, K. R., Pitman, T., Eckersley, T. et al. 2023. Zebrafish aversion to infrasound in an open field test. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 16, 1019368.

Aquatic species are capable of detecting infrasound (sub-20 Hz frequencies) which may be a source of anthropogenic pollution and have a detrimental impact on the environmental fitness of fish. Infrasound is generated by infrastructure, producing...

Swan, J., Boyer, S., Westlund, K. et al. 2023. Decreased levels of discomfort in repeatedly handled mice during experimental procedures, assessed by facial expressions. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 17, 1109886.

Mice are the most commonly used laboratory animal, yet there are limited studies which investigate the effects of repeated handling on their welfare and scientific outcomes. Furthermore, simple methods to evaluate distress in mice are...

Veness, A., Coyle, C., Murphy, S. et al. 2023. Minimising aggression in CD-1 and CD-1 background male mice with different enrichment types. Animal Technology and Welfare 22(1), 74–76.

Cage-mate aggression is a well-known problem that is more prevalent in certain strains of mice and is one of the most common reasons for single housing, increased stress levels, premature death and euthanasia. Numerous methods...

Alejandro, J., Yamanashi, Y., Nemoto, K. et al. 2023. Reducing stress and stereotypic behaviors in captive female pygmy slow lorises (Nycticebus pygmeaus). American Journal of Primatology 85(7), e23495.

Improving captive conditions of pygmy slow lorises (Nekaris and Nijman have recently suggested that the pygmy slow loris should be called the pygmy loris and is distinctive enough to warrant a new genus, Xanthonycticebu) (Nycticebus...

Baxter, A., Lau, A. R., Savidge, L. E. et al. 2023. Initial compatibility during a “Speed-Dating” test predicts postpairing affiliation in titi monkeys (Plecturocebus cupreus). American Journal of Primatology 85(7), e23496.

Behavioral compatibility plays a critical role in shaping how potential mates interact with and evaluate each other and whether they choose to pursue a relationship. Compatibility is especially important for mate choice and relationship quality...

Lau, A. R., Pinto, B. R., Witczak, L. R. et al. 2023. Room size and offspring presence impact pair-bonded primate affiliation. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 265, 105994.

Primates live in a variety of social groupings and vary in the expression of species-typical behaviors depending upon social conditions. Coppery titi monkeys (Plecturocebus cupreus) are pair-bonding, territorial primates often used to study neurobiology and...

Alef, R., Blaser, R. E. 2023. Social group during housing and testing modulates the effect of ethanol on zebrafish (Danio rerio) behavior. Behavioural Processes 209, 104877.

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are a popular model organism in behavioral pharmacology research due to many genetic and neurological similarities with humans. As a social species, the presence (or absence) of conspecifics during housing and testing...

Attokaren, M. K., Jeong, N., Blanpain, L. et al. 2023. BrainWAVE: A flexible method for noninvasive stimulation of brain rhythms across species. ENeuro 10(2) ENEURO.0257-22.2022.

Rhythmic neural activity, which coordinates brain regions and neurons to achieve multiple brain functions, is impaired in many diseases. Despite the therapeutic potential of driving brain rhythms, methods to noninvasively target deep brain regions are...

Xu, J. J., Lucero, M. Y., Herndon, N. L. et al. 2023. Comparison of a minimally invasive transthoracic approach and a surgical method for intrapleural injection of tumor cells in mice. Comparative Medicine 73(2), 120–126.

Intrapleural injections can be used in mice to deliver therapeutic and diagnostic agents and to model human disease processes (for example, pleural fluid accumulation, malignant pleural disease, and lung cancers). In the context of establishing...