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 that include earlier publications) can be filtered by Animal Type, Setting, and Topic. Most publications older than 2010 can only be searched by keyword. 
Doucet, M. R., Laevski, A. M., Doiron, J. A. et al. 2024. Locomotor activity as an effective measure of the severity of inflammatory arthritis in a mouse model. PLOS ONE 19(1), e0291399.

Objective Mouse models are valuable in preclinical studies of inflammatory arthritis. However, current methods for measuring disease severity or responses to treatment are not optimal. In this study a smart cage system using multiple sensors...

Golledge, H., Richardson, C. (Eds.) 2024. The UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management of Laboratory and Other Research Animals (9th ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. 1040 p.

The latest edition of the seminal reference on the care and management of laboratory and research animals. The newly revised ninth edition of The UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management of Laboratory and Other...

Mantz, M., Pugerud, A. 2024. Overcoming the hurdles of lab animal enrichment: Natural behaviors vs. scientific need. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 12(1) (January/February), 32-34.

The Animal Resources Core (ARC) at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute (AWRI) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) faces many of the same challenges other institutions manage in terms of enrichment for laboratory animals. A Behavior...

Fitzwater, A., Zhang, L. 2024. A cost-effective restraint method for safer subcutaneous scruff injections and reducing stress in mice and handlers. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 12(1) (January/February), 52-53.

Subcutaneous injection is a vital technique in mouse-based biomedical research. Compared to other injections, the subcutaneous method poses fewer technical challenges and reduces acute toxicity risks due to slower absorption. Several suitable subcutaneous injection sites...

Bartelik, A., Čater, M., Cevik, Ö. S. et al. 2024. Focus on novel approaches: Home-cage monitoring of laboratory mice. Scandinavian Journal of Laboratory Animal Science 50, 1–5.

Assessment of behavioural phenotype is crucial for the evaluation of various disease models, particularly inlaboratory rodents. Traditionally, this includes performing a variety of conventional tests where animals areremoved from their home-cages and placed in behavioural...

Hull, M. A., Nunamaker, E. A., Reynolds, P. S. 2024. Effects of refined handling on reproductive indices of BALB/cJ and CD-1 IGS mice. JAALAS 63(1), 3–9.

Current mouse handling methods during cage change procedures can cause stress and potentially compromise animal welfare. Our previous study of breeding C57BL/6J mice found modest increases in pup production and a significant reduction in preweaning...

Kitchenham, L., MacLellan, A., Paletta, P. et al. 2024. Do housing-induced changes in brain activity cause stereotypic behaviours in laboratory mice? Behavioural Brain Research 462, 114862.

Abnormal repetitive stereotypic behaviours (SBs) (e.g. pacing, body-rocking) are common in animals with poor welfare (e.g. socially isolated/in barren housing). But how (or even whether) poor housing alters animals’ brains to induce SBs remains uncertain...

Silva-Almeida, C., Muniz, S. C. A., Jobim, C. M. N. et al. 2024. Perinatal environmental enrichment changes anxiety-like behaviours in mice and produces similar intergenerational benefits in offspring. Behavioural Brain Research 456, 114700.

Environmental enrichment implemented in early life is able to induce long-term changes in gene expression, synaptic function and behavioural responses. In this study, we evaluated the adult behavioural effects of perinatal environment enrichment in male...

Wang, Q., Wang, Y., Tian, Y. et al. 2024. Social environment enrichment alleviates anxiety-like behavior in mice: Involvement of the dopamine system. Behavioural Brain Research 456, 114687.

Rearing environment plays a vital role in maintaining physical and mental health of both animals and humans. Plenty of studies have proved that physical environment enrichment in adolescence has protective effects on emotion, social behavior...

Benjamin, K. 2024. Make training easier with a scruffing restraint device. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 12(2) (March/April), 38-39.

If you conduct technical training with mice at your institution, a scruffing restraint device is a valuable addition to your training aid tool kit. A scruffing restraint device, such as the ScruffGuard offered by Research...

Alamaw, E. D., Casey, K. M., Tien, K. et al. 2024. Carprofen attenuates postoperative mechanical and thermal hypersensitivity after plantar incision in immunodeficient NSG mice. Comparative Medicine 74(2), 105–114.

Immunodeficient NSG mice are reported to be less responsive to buprenorphine analgesia. Here, we used NSG mice to compare the efficacy of the commonly used dose of carprofen (5 mg/kg) with 5 and 10 times...

Lawton, S. B., Grobe, C. C., Reho, J. J. et al. 2024. Differences in fluid, electrolyte, and energy balance in C57BL/6J mice (Mus musculus) in metabolic caging at thermoneutral or standard room temperatures. JAALAS 63(2), 190–200.

The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals recommends mice be pair or group housed and provided with nesting materials. These provisions support social interactions and are also critical for thermoregulatory behaviors such...

Arruda, I. F., Amendoeira, M. R. R., Bonifácio, T. F. et al. 2024. Humane endpoints in Swiss Webster mice infected with Toxoplasma gondii RH strain. Animals 14(9), 1326.

The highly virulent Toxoplasma gondii RH strain is maintained through successive passages in mice, but there is still a lack of studies that refine these procedures from a 3Rs perspective, where humanitarian ideals aim to...

Dijkhuizen, S., Van Ginneken, L. M. C., IJpelaar, A. H. C. et al. 2024. Impact of enriched environment on motor performance and learning in mice. Scientific Reports 14(1), 5962.

Neuroscience heavily relies on animal welfare in laboratory rodents as it can significantly affect brain development, cognitive function and memory formation. Unfortunately, laboratory animals are often raised in artificial environments devoid of physical and social...

Grandjean, J., Lake, E. M. R., Pagani, M. et al. 2024. What N Is N-ough for MRI-based animal neuroimaging? eNeuro 11(3), ENEURO.0531-23.2024.

Fueled by the recent and controversial brain-wide association studies in humans, the animal neuroimaging community has also begun questioning whether using larger sample sizes is necessary for ethical and effective scientific progress. In this opinion...

Grigsby, K., Usmani, Z., Anderson, J. et al. 2024. Development and implementation of a Dependable, Simple, and Cost-effective (DSC), open-source running wheel in High Drinking in the Dark and Heterogeneous Stock/Northport mice. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 17.

Maintaining healthy and consistent levels of physical activity (PA) is a clinically proven and low-cost means of reducing the onset of several chronic diseases and may provide an excellent strategy for managing mental health and...

Heuser, M., Gonzalez-Uarquin, F., Nuber, M. et al. 2024. A 3D-printed dummy for training distal phalanx amputation in mice. Animals 14(8), 1253.

The development of realistic dummies for training the distal phalanx amputation (DPA) technique in mouse pups is a promising alternative to reduce and replace animals in training for research and teaching. To test this, we...

Lipp, H.-P., Krackow, S., Turkes, E. et al. 2024. IntelliCage: The development and perspectives of a mouse- and user-friendly automated behavioral test system. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 17.

IntelliCage for mice is a rodent home-cage equipped with four corner structures harboring symmetrical double panels for operant conditioning at each of the two sides, either by reward (access to water) or by aversion (non-painful...

Lucas, R. J., Allen, A. E., Brainard, G. C. et al. 2024. Recommendations for measuring and standardizing light for laboratory mammals to improve welfare and reproducibility in animal research. PLOS Biology 22(3), e3002535.

Light enables vision and exerts widespread effects on physiology and behavior, including regulating circadian rhythms, sleep, hormone synthesis, affective state, and cognitive processes. Appropriate lighting in animal facilities may support welfare and ensure that animals...

Sanz-Moreno, A., da Silva-Buttkus, P., Terwee, C. B. et al. 2024. Assessment of quality of life and wellbeing in mouse preclinical research – A scoping review. Neuroscience Applied 3, 104058.

Mouse preclinical research is of great scientific interest to understand the mechanisms of human diseases and test potential therapeutic interventions. Researchers characterize biological and physiological traits, behaviors and disease symptoms using standardized phenotypic protocols in...

Schiele, A. R., Henze, I. S., Bettschart-Wolfensberger, R. et al. 2024. Antinociceptive and cardiorespiratory effects of a single dose of dexmedetomidine in laboratory mice subjected to craniotomy under general anaesthesia with isoflurane and carprofen or meloxicam. Animals 14(6), 913.

Pain refinement represents an important aspect of animal welfare in laboratory animals. Refining analgesia regimens in mice undergoing craniotomy has been sparsely investigated. Here, we sought to investigate the effect of dexmedetomidine in combination with...

Schmitt, O., Finnegan, E., Trevarthen, A. et al. 2024. Exploring the similarities between risk factors triggering depression in humans and elevated in-cage “inactive but awake” behavior in laboratory mice. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 11.

Depression is a human mental disorder that can also be inferred in non-human animals. This study explored whether time spent inactive but awake (“IBA”) in the home-cage in mice was further triggered by risk factors...

Streiff, C., Herrera, A., Voelkl, B. et al. 2024. The impact of cage dividers on mouse aggression, dominance and hormone levels. PLOS ONE 19(2), e0297358.

Home cage aggression in group-housed male mice is a major welfare concern and may compromise animal research. Conventional cages prevent flight or retreat from sight, increasing the risk that agonistic encounters will result in injury...

Varholick, J. A., Godinez, G., Jenkins, A. et al. 2024. Bite wounds and dominance structures in male and female African spiny mice (Acomys cahirinus): Implications for animal welfare and the generalizability of experimental results. Animals 14(1), 64.

Bite wounds due to aggression in male laboratory mice (Mus musculus) are a major welfare concern, often leading to attrition, chronic activation of the innate immune system, and significant impacts on the experimental results derived...

Wikanthi, L. S. S., Forsström, J., Ewaldsson, B. et al. 2024. Improved memory and lower stress levels in male mice co-housed with ovariectomized female mice. Animals 14(10), 1503.

Aggressiveness, expressed by fighting, is a frequent problem in group-housed laboratory male mice and results in increased stress, injury, and death. One way to prevent fighting is by pairing the male mice with ovariectomized female...