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 that include earlier publications) can be filtered by Animal Type, Setting, and Topic. 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...

Silva-Almeida, C., Muniz, S. C. A., Jobim, C. M. N. et al. 2024. Perinatal environmental enrichment changes anxiety-like behaviours in mice and produces similar intergenerational benefits in offspring. Behavioural Brain Research 456, 114700.

Environmental enrichment implemented in early life is able to induce long-term changes in gene expression, synaptic function and behavioural responses. In this study, we evaluated the adult behavioural effects of perinatal environment enrichment in male...

Ferreira-Duarte, M., Lopes, I. M., Morato, M. et al. 2024. Rats prefer condensed milk to strawberry jam – a new possibility for voluntary oral drug administration. Laboratory Animals 58(2), 160–163.

Voluntary oral drug administration using sweet substances promotes rodents’ therapeutic compliance while reducing stress induced by forced drug administration. We aimed to test whether rats would willingly eat strawberry jam or condensed milk from a...

Soulet, D., Jahoui, A., Guabiraba, R. et al. 2024. Exploration of skin redness and immunoglobulin A as markers of the affective states of hens. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 274, 106268.

Non-invasive markers of affective states can help understanding animals’ perception of situations and improving their welfare. These markers are scarce in avian species. In this study, we investigate the potential relation between alterations in facial...

Young, L., McCallum, R., Perreault, M. et al. 2024. Opportunistically using a Chronic Unpredictable Stress study to investigate ‘inactive-but-awake’ behaviour as a potential welfare indicator in laboratory rats. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 274, 106249.

Being awake but motionless, inactive-but-awake (IBA), has been suggested to reflect low arousal negative affect in several species. This preliminary study investigated IBA in rats exposed to Chronic Unpredictable Stress (CUS), opportunistically (to comply with...

Barr, S., Elwood, R. W. 2024. The effects of caustic soda and benzocaine on directed grooming to the eyestalk in the glass prawn, Palaemon elegans, are consistent with the idea of pain in decapods. Animals 14(3), 364.

Acceptance of the possibility of pain in animals usually requires that various criteria are fulfilled. One such criterion is that a noxious stimulus or wound would elicit directed rubbing or grooming at the site of...

Barr, S., Elwood, R. W. 2024. Trade-offs between avoidance of noxious electric shock and avoidance of bright light in shore crabs are consistent with predictions of pain. Animals 14(5), 770.

The suggestion that decapod crustaceans might experience pain has been dismissed by some authors who claim decapods only respond to noxious stimuli by nociceptive reflexes. Because reflexes do not require complex neuronal processing, but pain...

Golfidis, A., Kriengwatana, B. P., Mounir, M. et al. 2024. An interactive feeder to induce and assess emotions from vocalisations of chickens. Animals 14(9), 1386.

Understanding the emotional states of animals is a long-standing research endeavour that has clear applications in animal welfare. Vocalisations are emerging as a promising way to assess both positive and negative emotional states. However, the...

Lima, A. F. de, Lima, S. G. C., Nogueira-Filho, S. L. G. et al. 2024. Object play as a positive emotional state indicator for farmed spotted paca (Cuniculus paca). Animals 14(1), 78.

We aimed to assess whether object play can be used as a positive emotional state indicator for farmed spotted pacas (Cuniculus paca) by examining its association with other positive welfare markers including affiliative behavior and...

Scanes, C. G., Pierzchała-Koziec, K., Gajewska, A. 2024. Effects of restraint stress on circulating corticosterone and met enkephalin in chickens: Induction of shifts in insulin secretion and carbohydrate metabolism. Animals 14(5), 752.

This study examined the effects of acute restraint stress in the presence or absence of naltrexone on the circulating concentrations of insulin, glucose, Met-enkephalin and corticosterone in 14-week-old chickens [design: 2 sex × 2 stress/non-stress...

Breuer, L., Mösch, L., Kunczik, J. et al. 2023. Camera-based respiration monitoring of unconstrained rodents. Animals 13(12), 1901.

Animal research has always been crucial for various medical and scientific breakthroughs, providing information on disease mechanisms, genetic predisposition to diseases, and pharmacological treatment. However, the use of animals in medical research is a source...

Parsons, M., Stryjek, R., Fendt, M. et al. 2023. Making a case for the free exploratory paradigm: Animal welfare-friendly assays that enhance heterozygosity and ecological validity. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 17, 1228478.

Animal welfare considerations are an essential part of scientific research. If animals may suffer, then even 26 the most promising research plans can be delayed or rejected and the resulting data may be questionable. 27...

Ruvira, S., Rodríguez-Rodríguez, P., Cañas, S. et al. 2023. Evaluation of parameters which influence voluntary ingestion of supplements in rats. Animals 13(11), 1827.

Drug safety and efficacy studies frequently use oral gavage, but repetitive usage may cause problems. Administration through voluntary ingestion represents an opportunity for refinement. We aimed to develop a protocol for voluntary ingestion of gelatin-based...

Watanabe, S. 2023. Infrared thermography for non-invasive measurement of social inequality aversion in rodents and potential usefulness for future animal-friendly studies. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 17, 1131427.

Infrared thermography is a method that detects thermal radiation energy and can measure the body surface temperature of animals from a distance. While rectal temperature has traditionally been used to measure animals’ core temperature, thermal...

Lupfer, G., Brandenburger, A., Machado, M. et al. 2023. Ultrasonic vocalizations near 30 kHz may indicate excitement rather than distress in female Wistar rats. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 261, 105881.

Rats emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), sometimes referred to as 50-kHz vocalizations, during activities such as play and lower-frequency USVs, sometimes referred to as 22-kHz vocalizations, when experiencing distress. Definitions of 22-kHz vocalizations vary in terms...

Machado, M., Freitas Silveira, R. M., Machado Bittar, C. M. et al. 2023. Can the emotional state of calves be noticed by their facial expression and heart rate? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 260, 105874.

The aim of this study was to identify whether or not dairy calves change their facial expression and heart rate according to their emotional state when subjected to a stroking or umbrella stimulus. Thirty-two mixed-breed...

Lecorps, B., Woodroffe, R. E., von Keyserlingk, M. A. G. et al. 2023. Hunger affects cognitive performance of dairy calves. Biology Letters 19(1), 20220475.

Hunger remains a significant animal welfare concern as restricted feeding practices are common on farms. Studies to date have focused on negative effects on health and productivity but little research has addressed the feeling of...

Moëne, O. L., Larsson, M. 2023. A new tool for quantifying mouse facial expressions. ENeuro 10(2) ENEURO.0349-22.2022.

Facial expressions are an increasingly used tool to assess emotional experience and affective state during experimental procedures in animal models. Previous studies have successfully related specific facial features with different positive and negative valence situations...

Bakony, M., Kovács, L., Kézér, L. F. et al. 2023. The use of body surface temperatures in assessing thermal status of hutch-reared dairy calves in shaded and unshaded conditions. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.

The study was carried out in a Hungarian large-scale dairy farm during a 5-day period in hot August weather. Altogether 16 preweaning calves were chosen for the study. An agricultural mesh with 80% shielding was...

Bradley, H. S., Craig, M. D., Tomlinson, S. et al. 2023. Ecological considerations when designing mitigation translocations: An Australian reptile case study. Animals 13(16), 2594.

Translocation science has made considerable progress over the last two decades; however, reptile translocations still frequently fail around the world. Major knowledge gaps surround the basic ecology of reptile species, including basic factors such as...

Brezov, D., Hristov, H., Dimov, D. et al. 2023. Predicting the rectal temperature of dairy cows using infrared thermography and multimodal machine learning. Applied Sciences 13(20), 11416.

The paper proposes an approach for estimating the rectal temperature of dairy cows based on the non-invasive real-time monitoring of their respiration rates and the temperature-humidity index (THI) of the environment, combined with the analysis...

Buckham-Sporer, K., Earley, B., Marti, S. 2023. Current knowledge on the transportation by road of cattle, including unweaned calves. Animals 13(21), 3393.

Transport conditions have the potential to alter the physiological responses of animals to the psychological or physical stress of transport. Transportation may introduce multiple physical and psychological stressors to unweaned calves and adult cattle, including...

Chiba, Y., Nozaki, I., Itoh, M. et al. 2023. Noninvasive measurement of blood calcium concentration using electrocardiography in peripartum Jersey cows. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.

We previously developed a noninvasive method for measuring blood calcium concentration (Ca) in Holstein cows on site using electrocardiographic (ECG) variables and calving number, based on a high positive correlation between Ca. Jersey cows easily...

Du Plooy, K. J., Swan, G. E., Myburgh, J. G. et al. 2023. Electroencephalogram (EEG) assessment of brain activity before and after electrical stunning in the Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus). Scientific Reports 13(1), 20250.

Electrical stunning is used to capture crocodiles to perform routine management procedures. It is essential from a welfare point that electrical stunning must cause unconsciousness in animals. However, there is no information of whether or...

Elwood, R. W. 2023. Behavioural indicators of pain and suffering in arthropods and might pain bite back? Animals 13(16), 2602.

Pain in response to tissue damage functions to change behaviour so that further damage is minimised whereas healing and survival are promoted. This paper focuses on the behavioural criteria that match the function to ask...