Refinement Database

Animal care for nonhuman primates (NHPs) in biomedical facilities has undergone major changes in the past few decades. Today, most primate facilities have dedicated and highly trained animal care technicians who go to great efforts...

Environmental enrichment strategies are used to improve both the physiological and psychological welfare of captive animals, which can be achieved by increasing the expression of natural behaviour and decreasing abnormal behaviours. Examples of successful environmental...

At the Oregon National Primate Research Center, we train animals to enter transfer boxes using positive reinforcement training (PRT), a type of training in which the trainer reinforces desired behaviors (such asentering the transfer box)...

The discussion was started by the following questions: "Is the squeeze-back mechanism more or less stressful than the pole and collar system for removing a macaque from his cage for an IM (intramuscular) injection?" and...

Although alopecia may arise from a variety of causes, it is often viewed as an indicator of impaired wellbeing, frequently becoming a focus of regulators or facility managers. However, the extent of alopecia in populations...

Maintaining the psychologic wellbeing of nonhuman primates housed in a laboratory setting is an important aspect in providing the best possible care for these animals. Nonhuman primates kept in captivity can begin to display abnormal...

While access to a foraging log had no curative effect on serious self-injurious biting of a single-caged subadult male baboon, transferring the animal to an outdoor section with compatible females in adjacent cages (allowing grooming...

Most rodent studies evaluate different caging paradigms over short periods of time, which may not be realistic for typical colony settings. Inappropriate housing may lead to boredom, aggression, stereotypies, and altered metabolism, which in turn...

For captive animals, living in barren conditions leads to stereotypic behaviour that is hard to alleviate using environmental enrichment. This resistance to enrichment is often explained via mechanisms that decouple abnormal behaviour from current welfare...

We conclude that handling experimental animals more often than only at the time their cage is changes is beneficial.

Stereotyped motor behaviors are a common consequence of environmental restriction in a wide variety of species. Although environmental enrichment has been shown to substantially reduce stereotypy levels, the various components of enrichment have not been...

The combination of mouse igloos and running wheels proved to be highly effective in reducing flipping, circling, and jumping.

Early descriptions of floating limb behaviors in monkeys were associated with isolation rearing, a practice that ended more than two decades ago. The present authors named various forms of behaviors in which a leg is...

Stereotypic behaviours are common in animals in impoverished housing, arising from two complementary processes: (1) thwarted attempts to perform motivated behaviours; (2) forebrain dysfunction impeding normal behavioural inhibition. When enriched animals are moved to impoverished...

The “visitor effect” problem, whether zoo visitors are stressful or enriching to zoo animals, is made difficult to analyze by numerous methodological challenges. The extremes in visitor attendance patterns during the holiday season at Disney’s...

Live, direct observations are often used to collect behavioral data. However, the presence of an observer may affect the behavior of unhabituated subjects. This study was conducted to determine the effect of an observer’s presence...

The question was asked: "Rodents are often restrained for data collection procedures, such as blood collection and injection, by coaxing them into tubes, for example syringe cylinders or perspex tubes. What can be done to...

The application of positive reinforcement training (PRT) has increased in zoological, laboratory, and research settings in recent years, however there is little literature pertaining to the development and implementation of such programs. Over the past...

This article provides details to consider when preparing to use animals in biomedical research. The stress of transport and receipt of animals into a new environment mandate the need for a period of stabilization and...

Preparation of domestically bred animals for research usually involves some combination of social separation, relocation, resocialization, alterations in physical space, photoperiod, and diet, as well as exposure to novel environments. The research literature that has...

Recent studies have shown that 'return to home cage' can serve as a reward for maze learning in adult male mice. The present study examined whether the same reward is an effective motivator of learning...

This article provides a brief historical background of the events and circumstances that led to the 1985 Animal Welfare Act (AWA) amendments. It describes the development of the regulations promulgated by the US Department of...

In a typical cage of barbered mice, all but one individual will have near-identical patterns of hair loss. The intact individual (the 'barber') is removing hair from its companions. .. Barbers hold down their cage...

Twenty-six reports provide detailed information of how primates can be trained to voluntarily cooperate - rather than resist - during blood collection, injection, topical drug application, blood pressure measurement, urine collection, and capture.

Practical recommendations to address five basic characteristics of Old World primates in the laboratory setting: a) social disposition, b) semi-arboreal lifestyle, c) complex living environment, d) intelligence, e) sensitivity to distress.