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. 
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...

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...

George, A. J., Harmsen, B. J., Ford, J. A. et al. 2023. Evaluation of submental blood collection in mice (Mus musculus). JAALAS 62(1), 92–98.

The submental route is an option for nonterminal and serial blood collection in mice. This study compared the submental route to the maxillary route (also referred to as the submandibular route). The study used male...

Gilberto, D., Michener, M., Smith, B. et al. 2022. Chronic collection of cerebrospinal fluid from rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) with cisterna magna ports: Update on refinements. Comparative Medicine 72(1), 45-49.

More than 20 y ago, we developed an animal model for chronic and continuous collection of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from conscious rhesus macaques. Since our previous publication in 2003, we have successfully implanted 168 rhesus...

Buckmaster, C. L., Levesque, D., LaFollette, M. et al. 2022. Five hot topics in refinement of nonhuman primate neuroscience research. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 10(1) (January/February), 24-26.

Members of the North American 3Rs Collaborative (NA3RsC) refinement initiative have chosen to summarize developments in five hot topics of interest: 1. Tips for welfare-friendly transport, chairing, and restraint; 2. Guidance on refining food and...

Hirata, S. 2022. Sky after 30 years: A brief biography of three biomedical research chimpanzees in Japan. Primates 63(2), 105–108.

This article describes the strategies employed by Kumamoto Sanctuary in Japan to integrate 3 retired chimpanzees – who each spent 30 years singly housed in a biomedical facility – with the sanctuary’s other residents.

Schilling, A.-K., Mazzamuto, M. V., Romeo, C. 2022. A review of non-invasive sampling in wildlife disease and health research: What’s new? Animals 12(13), 1719.

In the last decades, wildlife diseases and the health status of animal populations have gained increasing attention from the scientific community as part of a One Health framework. Furthermore, the need for non-invasive sampling methods...

Ahrens Kress, A. P., Zhang, Y., Kaiser-Vry, A. R. et al. 2022. A Comparison of blood collection techniques in mice and their effects on welfare. JAALAS 61(3), 287-295.

Multiple methods are used to collect blood from mice; these methods have different effects on animal welfare. This study compared blood collection from facial, chin, and saphenous locations with regard to various parameters, including the...

MacLellan, A., Nazal, B., Young et al. 2022. Waking inactivity as a welfare indicator in laboratory mice: Investigating postures, facial expressions and depression-like states. Royal Society Open Science 9(11), 221083.

Animal welfare assessment relies on valid and practical indicators of affect. In mice, the most widely used research vertebrates, lying still with eyes open, inactive-but-awake (IBA) in the home cage, has potential to be one...

Novak, J., Jaric, I., Rosso, M. et al. 2022. Handling method affects measures of anxiety, but not chronic stress in mice. Scientific Reports 12(1), 20938.

Studies in mice have shown that less aversive handling methods (e.g. tunnel or cup handling) can reduce behavioural measures of anxiety in comparison to picking mice up by their tail. Despite such evidence, tail handling...

Mieske, P., Hobbiesiefken, U., Fischer-Tenhagen, C. et al. 2022. Bored at home?—A systematic review on the effect of environmental enrichment on the welfare of laboratory rats and mice. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 899219.

Boredom is an emotional state that occurs when an individual has nothing to do, is not interested in the surrounding, and feels dreary and in a monotony. While this condition is usually defined for humans...

Wahltinez, S. J., Stacy, N. I., Hadfield, C. A. et al. 2022. Perspective: Opportunities for advancing aquatic invertebrate welfare. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 973376.

Welfare considerations and regulations for invertebrates have lagged behind those for vertebrates, despite invertebrates comprising more than 95% of earth’s species. Humans interact with and use aquatic invertebrates for exhibition in zoos and aquaria, as...

Lima, A. F., Lima, S. G. C., Nogueira-Filho, S. L. G. et al. 2022. Vocal expression of emotions in farmed spotted paca (Cuniculus paca). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 256, 105753.

Vocal emissions in non-human mammals can be used as non-invasive indicators of animal emotion and welfare. Therefore, we aimed to validate the use of acoustic parameters as indicators of affective states and welfare in farmed...

Giral, M., Armengol, C., Gavaldà, A. 2022. Physiologic effects of housing rats in metabolic cages. Comparative Medicine 72(5), 298–305.

Currently, metabolic cages (MC) are the only way to achieve serial sampling of urine and feces in rodents. However, the use of this caging creates a dramatic change from an animal’s usual microenvironment. Here we...

Briffa, M. 2022. When should we ascribe sentience to animals? A commentary on “Hermit crabs, shells and sentience” (Elwood 2022). Animal Cognition 25(6), 1375–1380.

In a new review article, experiments on hermit crab behaviour are discussed in the context of possible animal sentience. Sentience can be defined as the ability to experience feelings such as pleasure or pain but...

Elwood, R. W. 2022. Caution is required when considering sentience in animals: A response to the commentary by Briffa (2022) on “Hermit crabs, shells, and sentience” (Elwood 2022). Animal Cognition 25(6), 1371–1374.

My recent review examined the complex and intimate relationship between hermit crabs and the empty gastropod shells upon which they depend for survival. Because shells come with costs as well as benefits, the crabs are...

Elwood, R. W. 2022. Hermit crabs, shells, and sentience. Animal Cognition 25(5), 1241–1257.

Hermit crabs have an intimate relationship with gastropod shells and show numerous activities by which they locate, select, and change shells in different contexts. They gather information about new shells and update information about their...

Takahashi, K. 2022. Changes in the anxiety-like and fearful behavior of shrimp following daily threatening experiences. Animal Cognition 25(2), 319–327.

Behavioral variation in animals is often influenced by experience. Previous studies have found that daily threatening experiences can enhance fear- and anxiety-like behaviors in some vertebrates. However, it is unclear whether the change in fear/anxiety...

Sørensen, D., Cloutier, S., Gaskill, B. (Eds.). 2021. Animal-centric Care and Management - Enhancing Refinement in Biomedical Research. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.

The concept of the 3Rs (Refinement, Reduction and Replacement) has been used as a framework for improving the welfare of laboratory animals for the last half century. By establishing an animal-centric view on housing and...

Martinic, G. 2021. Husbandry and healthcare of the Olive python (Liasis olivaceus). Animal Technology and Welfare 20(1), 44-50.

The article describes the care of the Olive python (Liasis olivaceus) including information on housing, feeding, handling, as well as the general health care of these animals. Some of the information presented is derived from...

Stow, R., Kendrick, J., Ibbotson, N. et al. 2021. A new group housing approach for non-human primate metabolism studies. Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods 107, 106947.

Understanding the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) of candidate drugs in preclinical species is an integral part of the safety and efficacy evaluation in drug development. For this purpose, the housing of single animals...

Song, M. K., Lee, J. H., Kim, Y.-J. 2021. Effect of chronic handling and social isolation on emotion and cognition in adolescent rats. Physiology & Behavior 237, 113440.

Adolescence is a critical period of establishing social relations through social interactions that affect the emotional development associated with stress responses, anxiety, depression, and cognitive development. We investigated the behavioral and neurobiological changes induced by...

Houser, L. A., Ramsey, C., de Carvalho, F. M. et al. 2021. Improved training and semen collection outcomes using the closed box chair for macaques. Animals 11(8), 2384.

Collaborative semen collection in monkeys is a valuable tool in research, animal collection management, and conservation efforts. To obtain samples, monkeys are often restrained in open restraint chairs (ORC) with the “pole and collar” technique...

Travain, T., Valsecchi, P. 2021. Infrared thermography in the study of animals’ emotional responses: A critical review. Animals 11(9), 2510.

Whether animals have emotions was historically a long-lasting question but, today, nobody disputes that they do. However, how to assess them and how to guarantee animals their welfare have become important research topics in the...

Prior, H., Blunt, H., Crossman, L. et al. 2021. Refining procedures within regulatory toxicology studies: Improving animal welfare and data. Animals 11(11), 3057.

During the development of potential new medicines or agrochemicals, an assessment of the safety profile to humans and environmental species is conducted using a range of different in silico and in vitro techniques in conjunction...