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. 
Benn, A. L., McLelland, D. J., Whittaker, A. L. 2019. A review of welfare assessment methods in reptiles, and preliminary application of the Welfare Quality® protocol to the pygmy blue-tongue skink, Tiliqua adelaidensis, using animal-based measures. Animals 9(1), 27.

Reptiles are held at wildlife parks and zoos for display and conservation breeding programs and are increasingly being kept as pets. Reliable indicators of welfare for reptiles need to be identified. Current guidelines for the...

Fehlhaber, B., Heinemann, A. S., Rübensam, K. et al. 2019. A sensitive scoring system for the longitudinal clinical evaluation and prediction of lethal disease outcomes in newborn mice. Scientific Reports 9, 5919.

Neonatal animal models are increasingly employed in order to unravel age-specific disease mechanisms. Appropriate tools objectifying the clinical condition of murine neonates are lacking. In this study, we tested a scoring system specifically designed for...

Cho, C., Michalidis, V., Lecker, I. et al. 2019. Evaluating analgesic efficacy and administration route following craniotomy in mice using the grimace scale. Scientific Reports 9, 359.

Most research laboratories abide by guidelines and mandates set by their research institution regarding the administration of analgesics to control pain during the postoperative period. Unfortunately, measuring pain originating from the head is difficult, making...

Colson, V., Mure, A., Valotaire, C. et al. 2019. A novel emotional and cognitive approach to welfare phenotyping in rainbow trout exposed to poor water quality. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 210, 103-112.

Recent scientific evidence for fish sentience has stressed the need for novel sentience-based detection tools of fish welfare impairment in commercial farms. In order to mimic a well-characterised stress situation, rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) were...

Howell, C. P., Cheyne, S. M. 2019. Complexities of using wild versus captive activity budget comparisons for assessing captive primate welfare. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 22(1), 78-96.

Activity budget comparisons between groups or individuals in the wild and those in captivity are commonly used to determine the range of wild-type behaviors that nonhuman animals in captivity perform. These comparisons are conducted with...

Arechavala-Lopez, P., Saraiva, J. L. 2019. Welfare of Cultured and Experimental Fishes. Basel, Switzerland: MDPI, 132 pages.

This open access book is a printed edition of the Special Issue on Welfare of Cultured and Experimental Fishes that was published in the journal Fishes. The PDF is free for download.

Fife-Cook, I., Franks, B. 2019. Positive welfare for fishes: Rationale and areas for future study. Fishes 4(2), 31.

Traditional animal welfare paradigms have focused on maintaining physical health and mitigating negative impacts to wellbeing. Recently, however, the field has increasingly recognized the importance of positive welfare (i.e., mental and physical states that exceed...

Saraiva, J. L., Arechavala-Lopez, P., Castanheira, M. F. et al. 2019. A global assessment of welfare in farmed fishes: The FishEthoBase. Fishes 4(2), 30.

Fish welfare is an essential issue that needs to be tackled by the aquaculture industry. In order to address it, studies have been limited to a small number of species and the information is generally...

Sterck, E. H. M., Zijlmans, D. G. M., de Vries, H., et al. 2019. Determining overweight and underweight with a new weight‐for‐height index in captive group‐housed macaques. American Journal of Primatology 81(6), e22996.

Housing primates in naturalistic groups provides social benefits relative to solitary housing. However, food intake may vary across individuals, possibly resulting in overweight and underweight individuals. Information on relative adiposity (the amount of fat tissue...

George, R. P., Howarth, G. S., Whittaker, A. L. 2019. Use of the rat grimace scale to evaluate visceral pain in a model of chemotherapy-induced mucositis. Animals 9(9), 678.

The rat grimace scale (RGS) is a measure of spontaneous pain that evaluates pain response. The ability to characterize pain through a non-invasive method has considerable utility for numerous animal models of disease, including mucositis...

Mattiello, S., Battini, M., De Rosa, G. et al. 2019. How can we assess positive welfare in ruminants? Animals 9(10), 758.

Until now, most research has focused on the development of indicators of negative welfare, and relatively few studies provide information on valid, reliable, and feasible indicators addressing positive aspects of animal welfare. However, a lack...

Carbajal, A., Soler, P., Tallo-Parra, O. et al. 2019. Towards non-invasive methods in measuring fish welfare: The measurement of cortisol concentrations in fish skin mucus as a biomarker of habitat quality. Animals 9(11), 939.

Cortisol levels in fish skin mucus have shown to be good stress indicators in farm fish exposed to different stressors. Its applicability in free-ranging animals subject to long-term environmental stressors though remains to be explored...

Deeming, L. E., Beausoleil, N. J., Stafford, K. et al. 2019. The development of a hoof conformation assessment for use in dairy goats. Animals 9(11), 973.

The assessment of hoof conformation is important due to its recognized relationship with the biomechanical functionality of the hoof. Hoof conformation can be assessed using objective measures or subjective scores. However, to date, there are...

Finkemeier, M.-A., Oesterwind, S., Nürnberg, G. et al. 2019. Assessment of personality types in Nigerian dwarf goats (Capra hircus) and cross-context correlations to behavioural and physiological responses. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 217, 28-35.

The assessment of personality in farm animals and its relation to other behavioural and physiological traits is of growing scientific and practical interest. Therefore, the aims of the present study were first to assess the...

Dench, J., McLaren-Jones, R., Vancollie, V. et al. 2019. Optimising health & welfare tracking using the Sanger Mouse Database. Animal Technology and Welfare 18(1), 62-64.

Health tracking of animals is required legally under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA) to prevent pain, avoidable suffering, distress or lasting harm. This is important with Genetically Modified (GM) animals as they are...

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...

Gurney, L. 2019. In-vivo imaging at NIBSC and how we use it to promote the 3Rs. Animal Technology and Welfare 18(2), 143-144. (IAT Congress 2018 Poster Presentation)

In-vivo imaging is a revolutionary technology offering a powerful tool for constructing studies involving mice. In the Biological Services Department (BSD) at NIBSC, the IVIS® Spectrum In Vivo System model is used to perform our...

Chatigny, F. 2019. The controversy on fish pain: A veterinarian’s perspective. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 22(4), 400-410.

Fish welfare is still a relatively new field. As such, regulations and protocols to ensure fish welfare are currently limited and vary considerably in different jurisdictions. This is in part because of the ongoing controversy...

Warwick, C., Arena, P., Steedman, C. 2019. Spatial considerations for captive snakes. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 30, 37-48.

Captive environments for snakes commonly involve small enclosures with dimensions that prevent occupants from adopting straight line body postures. In particular, the commercial, hobby, and pet sectors routinely utilize small vivaria and racking systems, although...

Ahloy-Dallaire, J., Klein, J. D., Davis, J. K. et al. 2019. Automated monitoring of mouse feeding and body weight for continuous health assessment. Laboratory Animals 53(4), 342–351.

Routine health assessment of laboratory rodents can be improved using automated home cage monitoring. Continuous, non-stressful, objective assessment of rodents unaware that they are being watched, including during their active dark period, reveals behavioural and...

Resasco, A., Carranza Martin, A. C., Ayala, M. A. et al. 2019. Non-aversive photographic measurement method for subcutaneous tumours in nude mice. Laboratory Animals 53(4), 352–361.

We have developed a new method for the measurement of subcutaneous tumour volume which consists in taking photographs of mice in their home cages, to refine the standard method of measurement with calipers. We consider...

Balansard, I., Cleverley, L., Cutler, K. L. et al. 2019. Revised recommendations for health monitoring of non-human primate colonies (2018): FELASA Working Group Report. Laboratory Animals 53(5), 429–446.

The genetic and biological similarity between non-human primates and humans has ensured the continued use of primates in biomedical research where other species cannot be used. Health-monitoring programmes for non-human primates provide an approach 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...

Redaelli, V., Papa, S., Marsella, G. et al. 2019. A refinement approach in a mouse model of rehabilitation research. Analgesia strategy, reduction approach and infrared thermography in spinal cord injury. PLOS ONE 14(10), e0224337.

The principles of Refinement, Replacement and Reduction (3R’s) should be taken into account when animals must be used for scientific purpose. Here, a Reduction / Refinement approach was applied to the procedure of spinal cord...

Klune, C. B., Larkin, A. E., Leung, V. S. Y. et al. 2019. Comparing the Rat Grimace Scale and a composite behaviour score in rats. PLOS ONE 14(5), e0209467.

There is a growing interest in the use of voluntarily displayed ongoing behaviours in laboratory animals to assess the pain experience. In rats, two behavioural pain scales, the Rat Grimace Scale (RGS, a facial expression...