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. 
Doerning, C. M., Burlingame, L. A., Lewis, A. G. et al. 2018. Refinement of perioperative feeding in a mouse model of vertical sleeve gastrectomy. JAALAS 57(3), 295-301.

Provision of liquid enteral nutrition (LEN) during the perioperative period is standard practice for rodents undergoing bariatric surgery, yet these diets are associated with several challenges, including coagulation of the liquid diet within the delivery...

Hoffman, J. F., Fan, A. X., Neuendorf, E. H. et al. 2018. Hydrophobic sand versus metabolic cages: A comparison of urine collection methods for rats (Rattus norvegicus). JAALAS 57(1), 51-57.

A common method for urine collection from rats requires the use of a metabolic cage, thus exposing animals to extended periods of isolation in an unfamiliar cage with a wire-mesh floor. A new method involving...

Phillips, K.A., Tukan, A. N., Rigodanzo, A. D. et al. 2018. Quantification of hair cortisol concentration in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) and tufted capuchins (Cebus apella). American Journal of Primatology 80(7), e22879.

Quantifying cortisol concentration in hair is a non‐invasive biomarker of long‐term hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal (HPA) activation, and thus can provide important information on laboratory animal health. Marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) and capuchins (Cebus apella) are New World primates...

Hocking, A. J., Elliot, D., Hua, J. et al. 2018. Administering fixed oral doses of curcumin to rats through voluntary consumption. JAALAS 57(5), 508–512.

Curcumin, a polyphenol derived from turmeric, has a wide variety of therapeutic benefits including antiinflammatory, antioxidative, and chemopreventative effects. Oral gavage is widely performed to administer curcumin in laboratory rodents in several experimental models. Although...

Raya, J., Neves Girardi , C. E., Hipólide, D. C. 2019. Corticosterone assimilation by a voluntary oral administration in palatable food to rats. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 22(1), 37-41.

Drug delivery in research on nonhuman animals in the laboratory is still challenging because it is usually invasive and stressful. Stress-free voluntary oral drug administration in water lacks precise control of dose and timing of...

Collymore, C., Kent, L., Ahn, S. K. et al. 2018. Humane endpoints for guinea pigs used for Mycobacterium tuberculosis vaccine research. Comparative Medicine 68(1), 41–47.

Guinea pigs are a commonly used model for tuberculosis vaccine research. Loss of body weight is the most frequently described humane endpoint for animals used in these studies. During a chronic study, we noted labored...

Rytlewski, J. D., Childress, P. J., Scofield, D. C. et al. 2018. Cohousing male mice with and without segmental bone defects. Comparative Medicine 68(2), 131–138.

Spaceflight results in bone loss like that associated with osteoporosis or decreased weight-bearing (for example, high-energy trauma such as explosive injuries and automobile accidents). Thus, the unique spaceflight laboratory on the International Space Station presents...

Wolfe, A. M., Rahman, M., McFadden, D. G. et al. 2018. Refinement and successful implementation of a scoring system for myxomatosis in a susceptible rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) model. Comparative Medicine 68(4), 280–285.

Myxoma virus is a member of Leporipoxviridae whose tropism is tightly restricted to lagomorphs. In susceptible Oryctolagus rabbits, the virus causes a highly lethal disease known as myxomatosis, which begins as a localized infection but...

Toth, L. A. 2018. Identifying and implementing endpoints for geriatric mice. Comparative Medicine 68(6), 439–451.

The types of changes in physical appearance and behavior that occur in elderly people similarly develop in elderly animals. Signs and symptoms that might cause concern in younger people or mice may be normal in...

Neff, E. P. 2018. Home sweet home cage. Lab Animal 47(10), 261–264.

This feature describes creative ways in which technology can be used to study animals within their home cages, eliminating the need to handle, restrain, and separate them from cage mates. One example includes voluntary brain...

Taylor, R. M., Miller, P. R., Ebrahimi, P. et al. 2018. Minimally-invasive, microneedle-array extraction of interstitial fluid for comprehensive biomedical applications: Transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, exosome research, and biomarker identification. Laboratory Animals 52(5), 526–530.

Interstitial fluid (ISF) has recently garnered interest as a biological fluid that could be used as an alternate to blood for biomedical applications, diagnosis, and therapy. ISF extraction techniques are promising because they are less...

Byrd, R., Boyd, S., Buckmaster, C. 2018. Rat thunder jacket— A zen experience. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 6(3) (September), 55-57.

Germ-free rats are fairly uncommon, relative to germ-free mice, and restraining these animals safely and effectively for compound administration and blood collection can be challenging. There are many commercially available varieties of restraint devices, but...

Ekesbo, I., Gunnarsson, S. 2018. Farm Animal Behaviour: Characteristics for Assessment and Welfare (2nd ed). CABI, Wallingford, UK.

Completely updated and revised, and with a new author team, this second edition of Farm Animal Behaviour continues to provide essential information on normal and stereotypic behaviors in a wide variety of farm animals to...

Straticò, P., Varasano, V., Suriano, R. et al. 2018. Analgesic effects of intravenous flunixin and intrafunicular lidocaine or their combination for castration of lambs. Veterinary Record Open 5(1), e000266.

Objective: To analyse the effectiveness of intrafunicular lidocaine and intravenous flunixin for reducing pain and signs of stress in lambs undergoing surgical castration. Design: Randomised controlled trial. Setting: One university teaching hospital in Italy. Participants...

Bayne, K. 2018. Environmental enrichment and mouse models: Current perspectives. Animal Models and Experimental Medicine 1(2), 82-90.

The provision of environmental enrichment to numerous species of laboratory animals is generally considered routine husbandry. However, mouse enrichment has proven to be very complex due to the often contradictory outcomes (animal health and welfare...

Rodrigues, M. V., de Castro, S. O., de Albuquerque, C. Z. 2017. The gingival vein as a minimally traumatic site for multiple blood sampling in guinea pigs and hamsters. PLOS ONE 12(5), e0177967.

Laboratory animals are still necessary in scientific investigation and vaccine testing, but while novel methodological approaches are not available for their replacement, the search for new, humane, easy, and painless methods is necessary to diminish...

Amen, E. M., Brecheisen, M., Sach-Peltason, L. et al. 2017. Refinement of a model of repeated cerebrospinal fluid collection in conscious rats. Laboratory Animals 51(1), 44-53.

The cannulation of the cisterna magna in rats for in vivo sampling of cerebrospinal fluid serves as a valuable model for studying the delivery of new drugs into the central nervous system or disease models...

Lipták, B., Kaprinay, B., Gáspárová, Z. 2017. A rat-friendly modification of the non-invasive tail-cuff to record blood pressure. Lab Animal 46(6), 251-253.

In animal models, blood pressure measurement methods can be either invasive (direct) or non-invasive (indirect). The non-invasive alternative involves applying a tail-cuff for blood pressure measurement. Current standardized restraint methods involve confining the laboratory animal...

Gaskill, B. N., Stottler, A. M., Garner, J. P. et al. 2017. The effect of early life experience, environment, and genetic factors on spontaneous home-cage aggression-related wounding in male C57BL/6 mice. Lab Animal 46(4), 176-184.

Aggression is a major welfare issue in mice, particularly when mice unfamiliar to each other are first placed in cages, as happens on receipt from a vendor, and following cage cleaning. Injuries from aggression are...

Nordquist, R., van der Staay, F., van Eerdenburg, F. et al. 2017. Mutilating procedures, management practices, and housing conditions that may affect the welfare of farm animals: Implications for welfare research. Animals 7(2), 12.

A number of mutilating procedures, such as dehorning in cattle and goats and beak trimming in laying hens, are common in farm animal husbandry systems in an attempt to prevent or solve problems, such as...

Moore, E. S., Cleland, T. A., Williams, W. O. et al. 2017. Comparing phlebotomy by tail tip amputation, facial vein puncture, and tail vein incision in C57BL/6 mice by using physiologic and behavioral metrics of pain and distress. JAALAS 56(3), 307-317.

Tail tip amputation with minimal restraint is not widely used for mouse phlebotomy. In part, this infrequency may reflect policies influenced by tail tip amputation procedures for genotyping, which involve greater handling and tissue removal...

Head, V., Eshar, D., Nau, M. R. 2017. Techniques for nonterminal blood sampling in black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus). JAALAS 56(2), 210-213.

Black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) are used as an animal model for research on gallbladder stones and several infectious diseases. A comprehensive, instructive resource regarding the appropriate techniques for venipuncture and collection of nonterminal blood...

Hawkins, P., McNeilly, A., Watson, J. et al. 2017. Report of the 2016 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent and Rabbit Welfare Group meeting. Animal Technology and Welfare 16(2), 77-86.

The RSPCA/UFAW Rodent (and now Rabbit) Welfare Group held a one-day meeting on 1 November 2016 at the University of Edinburgh and was attended by 70 delegates. Presentation topics included refinements in blood sampling rodents...

McMillan, J. L., Bloomsmith, M. A., Prescott, M. J. 2017. An international survey of approaches to chair restraint of nonhuman primates. Comparative Medicine 67(5), 442–451.

Specifically designed restraint chairs are the preferred method of restraint for research studies that require NHP to sit in place for sustained periods of time. In light of increasing emphasis on refinement of restraint to...

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...