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. 
Ramezani-Fard, E. 2023. Zebrafish nutrition: Everything known and to be known. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 11(1) (January/February), 30-32.

Despite the widespread use of zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a research animal in many studies including toxicologic and biomedical research, the nutritional requirements of this species have yet to be determined. Several aquafeed companies currently...

Darbyshire, A., Osborne, A., Jackson, G. et al. 2023. The Chinchilla Consortium: Standardizing health and husbandry. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 11(2) (March/April), 22-27.

Although chinchillas (Chinchilla lanigera, C. chinchilla) are categorized as a USDA-covered species, little information and guidance is available with regard to appropriate husbandry in a research setting. Here, the Consortium offers advice on standardized care...

Molnar, D. L., Vernasco Price, E. J. 2023. Use of a toy soak to maximize staff efficiency in cage wash operations. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 11(2) (March/April), 40-41.

The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals emphasizes that the primary aim of environmental enrichment is to enhance animal well-being. At our facility, at the end of a two-week cycle in a...

Krall, C., Hopper, L. M., Hutchinson, E. K. 2023. Mice just want to have fun: Playpens facilitate faster training in non-invasive techniques for improved refinement and well-being. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 11(4) (July/August), 22-24.

Practical mechanisms that can be implemented by animal facilities to enhance refinement include the use of non-aversive handling, non-invasive alternative procedures, and additional environmental enrichment. Thus, we sought to collate these techniques by developing a...

Camson, C. T., Palillo, J. A., Fehrenbach, L. A. et al. 2023. Evaluation of disinfection methods for artificial plants in zebrafish (Danio rerio) recirculating water systems. JAALAS 62(6), 512–517.

The use of artificial plants as environmental enrichment for zebrafish (Danio rerio) in biomedical research facilities has been shown to provide benefits in animal welfare and care. Despite the benefits of artificial plants to zebrafish...

Eskandarani, M. A., Hau, J., Kalliokoski, O. 2023. Rapid ammonia build-up in small individually ventilated mouse cages cannot be overcome by adjusting the amount of bedding. Lab Animal 52(6), 130–135.

We sought to investigate if varying levels of bedding had an effect on intra-cage ammonia levels in individually ventilated mouse cages (Euro Standard Types II and III). Employing a routine 2 week cage-changing interval, our goal...

Fares, R., Champéroux, P. 2023. Simultaneous assessment of central nervous and respiratory systems using jacketed telemetry in socially-housed rats: Application of the “3Rs” principles in core battery safety pharmacology studies. Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods 121, 107268.

Central nervous (CNS) and respiratory systems are routinely investigated in safety pharmacology core battery studies. For small molecules, the assessment of both vital organ systems is frequently done in rats in two distinct studies. With...

George, A. J., O’Malley, C. I., Bulock, R. E. et al. 2023. Implementation of an alternative training method for cardiac blood collection in mice. JAALAS 62(6), 487–493.

Training personnel to work with animals presents a variety of challenges, both logistically and with regard to animal welfare. These issues make training an ideal opportunity to evaluate practices and to implement the 3R principles...

Neville, V., Lind, J., Mendl, E. et al. 2023. A mapping review of refinements to laboratory rat housing and husbandry. Lab Animal 52(3), 63–74.

Refining the housing and husbandry of laboratory rats is an important goal, both for ethical reasons and to allow better quality research. We conducted a mapping review of 1,017 studies investigating potential refinements of housing...

Chen, D. D., Molk, D. M., Palley, L. S. et al. 2023. Pinna edge biopsy of 7 and 21 day old C57BL/6 mice as a method for identification and genotyping. JAALAS 62(5), 438–448.

Identifying and genotyping mice prior to weaning can be useful for mouse colony management. Mice of an undesired genotype can be identified prior to weaning and removed from further study, resulting in a reduction of...

Cho, E., Walsh, C. A., D’Angelo-Gavrish, N. M. et al. 2023. Effects of housing density on reproductive performance, intracage ammonia, and welfare of mice continuously housed as breeders in standard mouse and rat caging. JAALAS 62(2), 116–122.

Maintaining compliance with cage density recommendations in The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals precludes continuous trio breeding in standard-sized mouse cages. This study evaluated and compared several parameters of reproductive performance...

Clancy, B. M., Theriault, B. R., Turcios, R. et al. 2023. The effect of noise, vibration, and light disturbances from daily health checks on breeding performance, nest building, and corticosterone in mice. JAALAS 62(4), 291–302.

At our institution, the techniques that technicians use for health checks vary for mice housed in cages on individually ventilated caging (IVC) racks. If the mice cannot be adequately visualized, some technicians partially undock the...

Gates, K. V., Alamaw, E., Jampachaisri, K. et al. 2023. Efficacy of supplemental diet gels for preventing postoperative weight loss in mice (Mus musculus). JAALAS 62(1), 87–91.

This study investigated whether the use of commercially available diet gels prevented the postoperative weight loss associated with major survival surgery in mice. C57BL/6 mice were divided into 3 groups (n = 9 per group)...

Tirado-Muñiz, N., Spangler, T. L., Van Rooyen, H. et al. 2023. Evaluation of cage mate–induced postsurgical trauma in mice. JAALAS 62(2), 170–178.

Although mice are social animals, individual housing is sometimes requested after surgery. We questioned whether pair-housing mice after surgery resulted in greater trauma to the surgical site as compared with single housing. We further evaluated...

Butcher, G., Davidson, A., Sloanc, A. et al. 2021. An apparatus for automatically training and collecting individualized behavioral data with socially housed rodents. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 365, 109387.

Background: Conventional methods for individually housing, training, and testing rodents in behavioral assays can impose constraints that may limit some kinds of experimental external validity, preempt environmental enrichment, impose heavy experimenter time burdens that limit...

Stryjek, R., Modlinska, K. 2022. Pre-exposure via wire-mesh partition reduces intraspecific aggression in male, wild-type Norway rats. Animal Welfare 31(2), 175-186.

There are instances when animals are introduced and expected to live alongside unfamiliar conspecifics within zoos, laboratories and wildlife sanctuaries. These pairings of unfamiliar animals may result in stress, trauma, or even death, in addition...

Davis, H. J., Barabas, A. J., Gaskill, B. N. 2022. Titrating the preferences of altered lighting against temperature in female CD-1 laboratory mice, Mus musculus. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 246, 105541.

Aspects of the laboratory are aversive to mice, such as being housed under bright lights and at temperatures below their thermal comfort, causing stress and poor welfare. While murine thermal preferences are well understood, light...

Kitchenham, L., Nazal, B., Adcock, A. et al. 2022. Why does lifelong conventional housing reduce the sociability of female mice? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 246, 105532.

Compared to peers raised in well-resourced, 'enriched' environments (‘EE’), female laboratory mice from conventional barren cages are more aggressive to their cage-mates, and less sociable with familiar non-cage-mates (especially if these too are from conventional...

Denommé, M. R., Mason, G. J. 2022. Social buffering as a tool for improving rodent welfare. JAALAS 61(1), 5-14.

The presence of a conspecific can be calming to some species of animal during stress, a phenomenon known as social buffering. For rodents, social buffering can reduce the perception of and reaction to aversive experiences...

Merley, A. L., Hubbard, J. S., Rendahl, A. K. et al. 2022. Behavioral and physiologic effects of dirty bedding exposure in female ICR mice. JAALAS 61(1), 42-51.

Exposure of sentinel mice to dirty bedding is commonly used in health monitoring programs to screen colonies for clinical and subclinical disease. Despite the potential stressors present in dirty bedding, including but not limited to...

Scorrano, F. 2022. A new feeder device to provide cleaner and accessible diet gel to laboratory mice. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 10(2) (March/April), 50-52.

Gel solutions are simple to use, have a relative long shelf life and can be delivered with plastic cups or pouches. A common issue encountered by many institutions is that the gel becomes soiled quickly...

Popper, A. N., Sisneros, J. A. 2022. The sound world of zebrafish: A critical review of hearing assessment. Zebrafish 19(2), 37-48.

Zebrafish, like all fish species, use sound to learn about their environment. Thus, human-generated (anthropogenic) sound added to the environment has the potential to disrupt the detection of biologically relevant sounds, alter behavior, impact fitness...

Stevens, C., Dobbinson, K., Brook, E. et al. 2022. Report of the 2021 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group meeting. Animal Technology and Welfare 21(2), 83-91.

The RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group has held a one-day meeting every autumn for the last 28 years, so that its members can discuss current welfare research, exchange views on welfare issues and share experiences of...

Kolbe, T., Lassnig, C., Poelzl, A. et al. 2022. Effect of different ambient temperatures on reproductive outcome and stress level of lactating females in two mouse strains. Animals 12(16), 2141.

Ambient temperature is an important non-biotic environmental factor influencing immunological and oncological parameters in laboratory mice. It is under discussion which temperature is more appropriate and whether the commonly used room temperature in rodent facilities...

Aldhshan, M. S., Mizuno, T. M. 2022. Effect of environmental enrichment on aggression and the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor transcript variants in group-housed male mice. Behavioural Brain Research 433, 113986.

Social and environmental factors influence behavior via modulation of brain physiological functions. Environmental enrichment (EE) is an animal housing technique that provides complex sensory, motor, and social stimulation, leading to modifications in the innate aggressiveness...