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. 
Makowska, I. J., Franks, B., El-Hinn, C. et al. 2019. Standard laboratory housing for mice restricts their ability to segregate space into clean and dirty areas. Scientific Reports 9, 6179.

Laboratory mice (Mus musculus) are typically housed in simple cages consisting of one open space. These standard cages may thwart mouse ability to segregate resting areas from areas where they eliminate, a behaviour that is...

Pisula, W., Modlinska, K., Chrzanowska, A. 2019. Behavioural response to the environmental changes of various types in Lister-Hooded male rats. Scientific Reports 9, 7111.

The animal preference for complexity is most clearly demonstrated when the environmental change takes the form of an increase in complexity. Therefore, one of the potential difficulties in interpretation is that the preference for perceptual...

Mastellone, V., Bovera, F., Musco, N. et al. 2019. Mirrors improve rabbit natural behavior in a free-range breeding system. Animals 9(8), 533.

The aim of this research was to evaluate the possible usefulness of mirrors in improving rabbit behavior in a free-range breeding system. Three groups (each consisting of nine replicates of three animals) were compared: isolated...

Trocino, A., Zomeño, C., Filiou, E. et al. 2019. The use of environmental enrichments affects performance and behavior of growing rabbits housed in collective pens. Animals 9(8), 537.

This study assessed the effects of an elevated plastic-slatted platform and/or a plastic hiding tube in collective pens with large group sizes (27 or 36 rabbits/pen; 16 rabbits/m2) on the performance and welfare of rabbits...

Moreira, V. B., Mattaraia, V. G. M., Rodrigues, M. V. et al. 2019. Parental behavior and anxiety in isogenic and outbred mice given access to two types of nesting materials. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 215, 68-76.

The objective was to investigate if providing two types of nesting materials could modulate parental behavior and anxiety in laboratory mice. For that, 54 full-sib BALB/cJ and 50 randomly mated Swiss Webster mouse pairs were...

Nip, E., Adcock, A., Nazal, B. et al. 2019. Why are enriched mice nice? Investigating how environmental enrichment reduces agonism in female C57BL/6, DBA/2, and BALB/c mice. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 217, 73-82.

Compared to female mice raised in large, environmentally enriched (EE) cages, those from “shoebox” non-enriched (NE) cages demonstrate more stereotypic behaviour (SB) and depressive-like effects (i.e. learned helplessness; and inactive-but-awake behaviour [IBA], where a mouse...

LaFollette, M. R., Swan, M. P., Smith, R. K. et al. 2019. The effects of cage color and light intensity on rat affect during heterospecific play. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 219, 104834.

Environmental enrichment provides physiological and emotional benefits to laboratory rodents. Red tinted shelters are a common enrichment found in laboratories that provide rodents with a hiding space shielded from bright light. Red tinting alters the...

King, J. 2018. Report of the Enrichment; Awareness and Uptake Workshop 2018 on 26th June at College Court, Leicester. Animal Technology and Wefare 17(3), 163-167. [Meeting Report]

The point of the session was to have a collaborative discussion about environmental enrichment. The organisers wanted to know people’s experiences with enrichment, the barriers they have faced, if they have overcome any, and also...

Thomson, J., Mungall, W. 2019. Using subcuticular stitching in rats to replace skin closure clips as a refinement. Animal Technology and Welfare 18(1), 75-76.

Skin closure clips are widely used within the University of Edinburgh to close incision sites for various procedures in both rats and mice. In rats the skin closure clips very often come out as a...

Stevens, C., Hawkins, P., Lovell-Badge, R. et al. 2019. Report of the 2018 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent and Rabbit Welfare Group meeting. Animal Technology and Welfare 18(2), 81-91.

The RSPCA/UFAW Rodent (and now Rabbit) Working Group has held a one-day meeting every autumn for the last 25 years, so that its members can discuss current welfare research, exchange views on welfare issues and...

Lopez Juaristi, 2019. A comparison of enrichment items for the promotion of natural gnawing behaviour in laboratory mice. Animal Technology and Welfare 18(2), 93-97.

Appropriate housing and husbandry, including environmental enrichment, must take the natural habitat, biology and behaviour of each species into consideration. The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (1996) states that the goal...

King, J. 2019. Team awesome: Why we can be proud. Animal Technology and Welfare 18(2), 127-131.

The presentation I gave at IAT Congress 2019 was based on the changes and refinements the University of Dundee, Medical School Resource Unit (MSRU) has made over the past 18 months. These changes, described in...

Faggionato Kimura, L., Mattaraia, V. G. M., Picolo, G. 2019. Distinct environmental enrichment protocols reduce anxiety but differentially modulate pain sensitivity in rats. Behavioural Brain Research 364, 442-446.

Environmental enrichment (EE) can alter anxiety as well as perception of nociceptive stimuli, suggesting a relationship between well-being and analgesia. Considering that, we aimed to evaluate the influence of different EE types on anxiety and...

Papadakakis, A., Sidiropoulou, K., Panagis, G. 2019. Music exposure attenuates anxiety- and depression-like behaviors and increases hippocampal spine density in male rats. Behavioural Brain Research 372, 112023.

Epidemiological and clinical studies suggest that early-life stress (ELS) may lead to the development of mental disorders in adulthood. Maternal separation (MS) is a valid animal model of ELS that produces detrimental effects on brain...

Mora-Gallegos, A., Fornaguera, J. 2019. The effects of environmental enrichment and social isolation and their reversion on anxiety and fear conditioning. Behavioural Processes 158, 59-69.

Animal models of fear and anxiety provide important insight into anxiety-related symptoms in humans. Environmental physical conditions and social contact influence behavior and brain plasticity particularly at early developmental stages and have long lasting effects...

Modlinska, K., Chrzanowska, A., Pisula, W. 2019. The impact of changeability of enriched environment on exploration in rats. Behavioural Processes 164, 78-85.

Although the positive effect of environmental enrichment on animals’ cognitive capacities is well-known, it remains unclear what role changeability plays in this context. Our study aims to analyse the impact of environmental changeability on the...

Wang, H., Li, Q, Tang, H. et al. 2019. The activated newborn neurons participate in enriched environment induced improvement of locomotor function in APP/PS1 mice. Brain and Behavior 9(7), e01316.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an age‐related neurodegenerative disorder. One of the pathological features of AD is neuronal loss in brain regions associated with cognition, particularly the hippocampus. An enriched environment (EE) can facilitate neuronal plasticity...

Scarola, S. J., Perdomo Trejo, J. R., Granger, M. E. et al. 2019. Immunomodulatory effects of stress and environmental enrichment in Long–Evans rats (Rattus norvegicus). Comparative Medicine 69(1), 35–47.

Stress can influence the secretion of neuroendocrine mediators, thereby exposing immune cells to altered signaling and interactions. Here we investigated the synergetic effect of stress and environmental enrichment on the immune response of Long–Evans rats...

Lee, L. Y., Lee, D., Ryu, H. et al. 2019. Capnography-guided endotracheal intubation as an alternative to existing intubation methods in rabbits. JAALAS 58(2), 240-245.

Rabbits provide a unique challenge for routine endotracheal intubation in clinical practice because of various distinctive anatomic and physiologic features. Many previously proposed methods for endotracheal intubation in rabbits are limited by several factors, including...

Sørensen, D. B., Metzdorff, S. B., Jensen, L. K. et al. 2019. Time-dependent pathologic and inflammatory consequences of various blood sampling techniques in mice. JAALAS 58(3), 362-372.

We compared 6 frequently used mouse blood-sampling methods (lateral tail incision; tail-tip amputation; sublingual, submandibular, and saphenous vein puncture; and retrobulbar sinus puncture during isoflurane anesthesia) with regard to induction of local and systemic inflammation...

Dutton III, J. W., Artwohl, J. E., Huang, X. et al. 2019. Assessment of pain associated with the injection of sodium pentobarbital in laboratory mice (Mus musculus). JAALAS 58(3), 373-379.

The AVMA Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals considers injection of barbiturates to be an acceptable method of euthanasia in rodents but states there is a potential for pain when administered intraperitoneally. This study examined...

Falkenberg, M. K., Teilmann, A. C., Henriksen, T. et al. 2019. Clinical, physiologic, and behavioral evaluation of permanently catheterized NMRI mice. JAALAS 58(3), 380-389.

Vascular catheterization is becoming a popular technique in laboratory rodents, facilitating repetitive blood sampling and infusion in individual animals. In mice, catheterization is complicated by their small body size, which may increase the risk of...

Association of Primate Veterinarians. 2019. Association of Primate Veterinarians’ Position Statement: Cerebrospinal fluid aspiration for nonhuman primates in biomedical research. JAALAS 58(4), 428-429.

The Association of Primate Veterinarians (APV) recognizes that CSF collection may be required for both clinical and research purposes in nonhuman primates (NHP). Because there are inherent risks associated with the technique, the laboratory animal...

Animal Welfare Institute. 2019. Technician spotlight: Jessica Brekke’s “rat hammock” design. AWI Quarterly 68(4) Winter, 9.

This article describes how to make an inexpensive 'rat hammock' out of PVC tunnels for standard-housed laboratory rats.

Animal Welfare Institute. 2019. Let’s get serious about animal play. AWI Quarterly 68(3) Fall, 19.

This article describes the importance of providing laboratory animals with opportunities to engage in play, and provides a few practical ideas for how to do this.