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. 
Wallgren, T., Lundeheim, N., Wallenbeck, A. et al. 2019. Rearing pigs with intact tails—Experiences and practical solutions in Sweden. Animals 9(10), 812.

Tail biting is a common issue within commercial pig production. It is mainly an indicator of inadequate housing environment and results in reduced health welfare and production. To reduce the impact of tail biting, pigs...

Ebertz, P., Krommweh, M. S., Büscher, W. 2019. Feasibility study: Improving floor cleanliness by using a robot scraper in group-housed pregnant sows and their reactions on the new device. Animals 9(4), 185.

Successful pig farming needs the best conditions of cleanliness in the housings. The present study examined for the first time whether a robot scraper usually applied in dairy farming is usable in sow housings for...

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...

Brajon, S., Morello, G. M., Teixeira, M. S. et al. 2019. Social environment as a cause of litter loss in laboratory mouse: A behavioural study. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 218, 104827.

Perinatal mortality is a widespread problem in laboratory mouse breeding and is often manifested by the loss of the entire litter within the first days of life. High mortality is an animal health and welfare...

Nowland, T. L., van Wettere, W. H. E. J., Plush, K. J. Allowing sows to farrow unconfined has positive implications for sow and piglet welfare. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 221, 104872.

To reduce piglet mortality from overlay, farrowing crates confine the sow, restricting nest building activities. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of confinement in the lead up to and during parturition...

Filby, E. 2019. Give us a break! Animal Technology and Welfare 18(1), 45-48.

Literature is replete with studies on stressors to laboratory rodents; knowing the impact research and husbandry interventions, such as routine cage changing, have on rodents’ stress levels, physiology and behaviour, we hypothesised that animals recovering...

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...

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...

White, M. 2019. Pro’s and pro’s of selective cleaning. Animal Technology and Welfare 18(2), 121-126.

The Kathleen Lonsdale Building (KLB), is a high specification, high health status animal facility that is a full IVC facility with an integral quarantine section. It houses transgenic (TG) mice, inbred, outbred and immuno-suppressed mice...

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...

Liang, F., Yang, S., Zhang, Y. et al. 2019. Social housing promotes cognitive function through enhancing synaptic plasticity in APP/PS1 mice. Behavioural Brain Research 368, 111910.

Previous studies have shown that loneliness increases the risk of AD (Alzheimer’s disease) onset, while active and frequent social housing delays the onset of cognitive impairment. The mechanism of how this occurs remains unclear. In...

Yao, L., Li, Y., Qian, Z. et al. 2019. Loss of control over mild aversive events produces significant helplessness in mice. Behavioural Brain Research 376, 112173.

This article is about the importance of giving mice control over what happens to them. Most of the pathophysiology of depression are still unknown because of its numerous disease states of distinct etiology and pathogenesis...

Lee, C. H., Yun, W., Lee, J. H. et al. 2019. Effects of artificial sweeteners on feed palatability and performance in weaned pigs. Canadian Journal of Animal Science 99(2), 307-314.

In experiment 1, a total of 30 weaning pigs were allotted to three dietary treatments to check the palatability of the dietary feed. Diet treatments were as follows: reference diets = basal diets + 0.05%...

Bellin, M. A., Reitnauer, K. J., Gomez, A. M. et al. 2019. Evaluation of a synthetic bedding substrate for mice (Mus musculus). JAALAS 58(2), 154-159.

This study compared a synthetic bedding substrate (SBS), which has the potential to be a particulate-free animal bedding system, with the standard woodchip bedding. The objective was to demonstrate that the SBS is habitable for...

Bartley, K. A., Johnson, C. H. 2019. Human infant pants for postoperative protection during social housing of New Zealand white rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus). JAALAS 58(4), 510-516.

Elizabethan collars (E-collars) are commonly used in various species to safeguard healing wounds. However, E-collars inadvertently restrict the expression of normal species-typical behaviors, including coprophagy, self-grooming, and social housing. To maintain social housing in accordance...

Taylor, J. L., Noel, P., Mickelsen, M. 2019. Evaluation of a 16-week change cycle for ventilated mouse cages. JAALAS 58(4), 443-449.

The methods and conditions for housing research mice have been the subject of many discussions and publications in recent years. At our institution, we began to explore these matters with the goal of reducing stress...

Animal Welfare Institute. 2019. A new beginning for retired laboratory rabbits. Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) Quarterly 68(4) Winter, 10-11.

This article describes the rehoming of 10 laboratory female rabbits now living as a group in a private shelter.

Windsor, Z., Bate, S. T. 2019. Assessing the safety and suitability of nesting material for singly housed mice with surgically fitted head plates. Heliyon 5(7), e02097.

Nesting material, for example shredded paper, is a common form of enrichment for laboratory mice. However, there has been limited research performed regarding its apparent safety when given to mice fitted with exteriorised devices such...

Azkona, G., Caballero, J. M. 2019. Implementing strategies to reduce singly housed male mice. Laboratory Animals 53(5), 508–510.

There are different husbandry situations that lead to social isolation of male mice. Besides legal considerations, single housing has a negative impact on behavioural and molecular studies. We have implemented two strategies, the ‘companion mouse’...

Jensen, T. L., Kiersgaard, M. K., Mikkelsen, L. F. et al. 2019. Fasting of male mice – Effects of time point of initiation and duration on clinical chemistry parameters and animal welfare. Laboratory Animals 53(6), 587–597.

Fasting of mice is a common procedure, which can affect the outcome of the study as well as animal welfare. In this study, we assess the effects of fasting, fasting duration and fasting initiation time...

Sherrill, C., Kavanagh, K. 2019. Fight Club: Using housing conditions to curb male cage aggression. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 7(1) (March), 38-40.

Those who have worked with C57BL/6 males know how aggressive they can be towards their cage mates. We poured over academic journals, reading every article we could find regarding male home cage aggression. Three articles...

Robinson-Junker, A., O’Hara, B., Durkes, A. et al. 2019. Sleeping through anything: The effects of unpredictable disruptions on mouse sleep, healing, and affect. PLOS ONE 14(1), e0210620.

Many aspects of the laboratory environment are not tailored to the needs of rodents, which may cause stress. Unpredictable stressors can cause ulcers, prolonged pituitary-adrenal activation, and anhedonia. Similarly, pain has been demonstrated to slow...

Wang, X., Zhang, Y., Lu, T. et al. 2019. The effect of cage ventilation rate on the health of mice housed in Individually Ventilated Cages. Scandinavian Journal of Laboratory Animal Science 45(3).

The number of air changes per hour (ACH), an important index for individually ventilated cages (IVC), strongly affects the cage microenvironment and the health of laboratory animals. The objective of this study was to determine...

Lidster, K., Owen, K., Browne, W. J. et al. 2019. Cage aggression in group-housed laboratory male mice: An international data crowdsourcing project. Scientific Reports 9, 15211.

Aggression in group-housed laboratory mice is a serious animal welfare concern. Further understanding of the causes of mouse aggression could have a significant impact on a large number of laboratory animals. The NC3Rs led a...

Middelkoop, A., Costermans, N., Kemp, B. et al. 2019. Feed intake of the sow and playful creep feeding of piglets influence piglet behaviour and performance before and after weaning. Scientific Reports 9, 16140.

Creep feed intake is variable and may be partly homeostatically and exploratory driven. We studied effects of maternal feed restriction and a ‘play-feeder’ on piglet behaviour and performance. 37 Litters received creep feed in a...