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. 

As chimpanzees are retired from research, enclosures such as the Primadomes™ become available for repurposing for other monkey species. However, modifications are necessary to meet specific monkey species needs, and considerations for animal handling and...

The degree to which the relatively smaller area of artificial environments (compared with natural habitats) has measureable effects on the behavior and welfare of captive animals has been debated for many years. While there is...

This article will discuss an improved and refined technique used for working and caring for a group of diabetic mice. As a team of animal technologists, academics and named veterinary surgeon, we developed a new...

Monkeys first arrived in the Comparative Biology Centre (CBC) at Newcastle University in 2000. They were housed in three small separate units consisting of steel and wooden cages. In 2011 a decision was made to...

Huddling and nest building are two methods of behavioral thermoregulation used by mice under cold stress. In the laboratory, mice are typically housed at an ambient temperature (Ta) of 20°C, well below the lower end...

The study of laboratory animal behavior has increased steadily over the last decade, with expanding emphasis on a variety of commonly used species. In the United States, this trend was initially focused on species for...

Sentinel animals are used to monitor the health status of rodents used in research. It is important to screen for potentially pathogenic viruses, parasites, and bacterial organisms to detect and rapidly respond to unwanted pathogens...

Housing laboratory primates in large pens can improve welfare by providing ample opportunity to express normal social and locomotor behaviors. This type of housing, however, can present great challenges in terms of manipulating animals for...

The goal of this project was to evaluate the efficacy of a porch in decreasing feces painting in captive rhesus macaques. The porch is a small extension that is hung on the outside of a...

Visual barriers have been shown to be valuable environmental components of nonhuman primate housing to break visual contact between conspecifics as well as between primates and their human keepers. The effect of visual barriers can...

The environment in which a laboratory animal is housed can significantly influence its behaviour and welfare, acting as a potential confounding factor for those studies in which it is utilised. This study investigated the impact...

A proper cage environment is essential for the welfare of laboratory mice, especially for females during the energy demanding lactation period and for pups during early development and growth. The most common housing system for...

Outdoor access is often cited as a critical component of appropriate housing for great apes in captivity, and although studies have shown that offering primates choices can improve welfare, choice to access specific areas has...

Cognitive abilities likely evolved in response to specific environmental and social challenges and are therefore expected to be specialized for the life history of each species. Specialized cognitive abilities may be most readily engaged under...

This is the third volume of discussions that took place on the Laboratory Animal Refinement & Enrichment Forum (LAREF). This forum is dedicated to the exchange of personal experiences of refining the conditions under which...

Captive rhesus macaques sometimes exhibit undesirable abnormal behaviors, such as motor stereotypic behavior (MSB) and self-abuse. Many risk factors for these behaviors have been identified but the list is far from comprehensive, and large individual...

Clinical Laboratory Animal Medicine: An Introduction, Fourth Edition offers a user-friendly guide to the unique anatomy and physiology, care, common diseases, and treatment of small mammals and nonhuman primates. Carefully designed for ease of use...

Individual ventilated cages (IVC) are increasing in popularity. Although mice avoid IVC in preference testing, they show no aversion when provided additional nesting material or the cage is not ventilated. Given the high ventilation rate...

Individual ventilated cages (IVC) have recently been increasing in popularity. Based on the high rates of ventilation with IVCs, we developed 3 hypotheses: first, mice housed in IVCs experience significantly more cold-stress than mice housed...

Since there is evidence that the bottom cages can impact research, this should be a good reason to eliminate the two-tier system with its species-inappropriate bottom-tier cages.

Cognitive abilities likely evolved in response to specific environmental and social challenges and are therefore expected to be specialized for the life history of each species. Specialized cognitive abilities may be most readily engaged under...

This study examined whether allowing 10 singly-housed adult male rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) 2-week access to a larger play cage would increase their species-typical behavior and decrease anxiety and abnormal behavior. The play cage consisted...

The use of substrate can have benefits to group housed macaques, including decreased aggression and increased foraging. Still, in some facilities, the use of bedding is perceived as time intensive and costly. In this study...

The three main divisions of 'marmosetcare.com' aim respectively to promote: an understanding of the range of behaviour in this species, placing this behaviour in the context of its natural habitat and promoting good welfare in...

We used four years of detailed data on where 23 great apes (chimpanzees and gorillas) positioned themselves within a modern, indoor/outdoor zoo enclosure to determine not only how the apes utilized their space but also...