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. 
Prebble, J. L., Langford, F. M., Shaw, D. J. et al. 2015. The effect of four different feeding regimes on rabbit behaviour. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 169, 86-92.

Dietary composition and presentation impacts on the behaviour of animals, and failure to provide a suitable diet can lead to reduced welfare through the development of poor health, the inability to express normal behaviours and...

Jackson, E., Demarest, K., Eckert, W. J. et al. 2015. Aspen shaving versus chip bedding: Effects on breeding and behavior. Laboratory Animals 49(1), 46-56.

The choice of laboratory cage bedding material is often based on both practical and husbandry issues, whereas behavioral outcomes rarely appear to be considered. It has been noted that a breeding success difference appears to...

Maher, R. L., Barbash, S. M., Lynch, D. V. et al. 2015. Group housing and nest building only slightly ameliorate the cold stress of typical housing in female C57BL/6J mice. American Journal of Physiology 308(12), R1070-R1079.

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...

Nordmann, E., Barth, K., Futschik, A. et al. 2015. Head partitions at the feed barrier affect behaviour of goats. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 167, 9-19.

Space allowance at the feeding places often forces goats to feed in close proximity, that is, less than their individual distances. In consequence, agonistic behaviour may increase as well as stress and injuries, while access...

Buijs, S., Hermans, K., Maertens, L. et al. 2014. Effects of semi-group housing and floor type on pododermatitis, spinal deformation, and bone quality in rabbit does. Animal 8(10), 1728-1734.

The most common housing system for reproduction rabbits, individual cage housing on a wire floor, is increasingly scrutinized because of its potential detrimental impact on animal welfare. We compared three types of housing: (1) individual...

Bode, A. E., Barber, H. 2014. Use of vinyl nonadhesive tape as an alternative for positioning rodents in small animal imaging. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 597-598. (Abstract #P185).

Specific positioning for different imaging modalities is essential in our small animal imaging core. While we have different animal holders designed to position the animal inside the MRI, additional securing of the animal to the...

Murphy, S., Fortner, J., Adusumilli, S. 2014. A comparison of soiled bedding densities and stress in sentinel mice. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 609. (Abstract #P225).

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...

Allaire. A. C., Boule, S. 2014. Refining blood collection techniques to improve animal welfare and sample quality. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 605-606. (Abstract #P212).

An effort to refine rodent blood collection techniques resulted in an examination of alternative methodologies to improve animal welfare and sample quality. Disease model or repeated sample collection resulted in inadequate sample volume, occasional hemolysis...

Bratcher, N. A., Ebert, P. A., Buck, W. et al. 2014. Refinement and efficiency through serial microsampling: Cost:benefit analysis. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 580. (Abstract #P121).

Advances in bioanalytic methods allow for accurate plasma drug level measurement in small sample volumes. Decreased sample volumes enable serial blood sample collection from one rodent, rather than terminal or sparse sampling from multiple rodents...

Monts de Oca, N., Diaz, L., McMahen, D. et al. 2014. The use of lean management principles to enhance a nonhuman primate environmental enrichment program. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 580-581. (Abstract #P122).

Sewage back-up and overflows in the rooms of our primate facility initiated an analysis of the factors contributing to the clogging of the drains. An investigation reviewing the materials responsible for the clogging of the...

Tupper, T., Manning, H., Turner, D. et al. 2014. An innovative restraint device for the placement of intravenous tail vein catheters in anesthetized mice. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 584. (Abstract #P136).

Consistently accurate intravenous tail vein administration of radiopharmaceuticals in anesthetized mice is a critical component of successful PET/CT imaging in the preclinical setting. Injectable anesthetics are often not suitable for PET imaging and commercially available...

Torres, M. 2014. Refining methods for mouse hepatic biopsy. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 557-558 (Abstract #P32).

The mouse is a commonly used species in liver research such as oncology, toxicology, and disease models. The ability to collect specimens of liver is vital to such research. Such studies require either a major...

Sorensen, D. B. 2014. Shedding ultraviolet light on welfare in laboratory rodents: Suggestions for further research and refinement. Animal Welfare 23(3), 259-261.

The welfare of laboratory rats and mice is sought to be optimised through adjustment of a variety of environmental factors, including light intensity and photoperiodicity. However, the fact that rodents are able to perceive ultraviolet...

Teilmann, A. C., Madsen, A. N., Holst, B. et al. 2014. Impact of blood sampling procedures on the welfare of laboratory mice. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 600-601. (Abstract #P195).

A previous study showed that blood sampling either automatically, through a catheter, or by puncture of the tail vein is less stressful than facial vein phlebotomy in mice. We decided to investigate how facial vein...

Holley, A., Drayer, J., Rammling, M. et al. 2014. A simplified method to identify and reduce flooded rodent caging. Charles River, Orlando, FL.

The number of flooded cages per cage change cycle (14 days) was tracked and it was identified that leaks and flooding often times occurred shortly after cage changing. To reduce the occurrence of flooded caging...

Burman, O., Buccarello, L., Redaelli, V. et al. 2014. The effect of two different individually ventilated cage systems on anxiety-related behaviour and welfare in two strains of laboratory mouse. Physiology & Behavior 124, 92-99.

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...

Febinger, H.Y., George, A., Priestley, J. et al. 2014. Effects of housing condition and cage change on characteristics of sleep in mice. JAALAS 53(1), 29-37.

Although human subjects are widely used to study sleep and sleep disorders, animals have been invaluable in developing our understanding of the physiology of sleep and underlying mechanisms of sleep disorders. Environmental stimuli are likely...

Kulesskaya, N., Karpova, N. N., Ma, L. et al. 2014. Mixed housing with DBA/2 mice induces stress in C57BL/6 mice: Implications for interventions based on social enrichment. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 8, 257.

Several behavioral interventions, based on social enrichment and observational learning are applied in treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders. However, the mechanism of such modulatory effect and the safety of applied methods on individuals involved in social...

Spangenberg, E., Wallenbeck, A., Eklöf, A.-C. et al. 2014. Housing breeding mice in three different IVC systems: Maternal performance and pup development. Laboratory Animals 48(3), 193–206.

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...

Posadas, M., Neubauer, T., Buckmaster, C. A. 2013. Noisy construction does not have to generate noisy data. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 670-671 (Abstract).

Our institution opened the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurologic Research Institute (NRI) in November of 2010. This facility houses a team of world renowned researchers working with mice and rats to develop treatments for childhood...

White, M. 2013. More bedding is better for mice. Animal Technology and Welfare 11, 149-150.
Voigt, C. C., Klockner, P., Touma, C. et al. 2013. Hormonal stress response of laboratory mice to conventional and minimally invasive bleeding techniques. Animal Welfare 22(4), 449-455.

Conventional bleeding of small laboratory animals is often associated with stress and injuries that can cause haematomas, inflammation and ultimately the death of animals under investigation. Here, we used faecal glucocorticoid metabolites as an indicator...

Suckow, M. A., Wilhite, S., Wolter, W. R. et al. 2013. Effect of light intensity as determined by cage rack position on tumor growth in a mouse model of melanoma. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 670 (Abstract #P178).

Within the typical laboratory animal housing facility, animals may be exposed to varying intensities of light as a result of cage type, cage position, light source, and other factors. While evidence exists that light contamination...

Sadler, A. M., Bailey, S. J. 2013. Validation of a refined technique for taking repeated blood samples from juvenile and adult mice. Laboratory Animals 47(4), 316-319.

Repeated blood sampling from laboratory animals is desirable in certain experimental designs and also for reducing the number of animals used in research. Biochemical methods for analysing blood samples require only small blood volumes to...

Pritchett-Corning, K. R., Keefe, R., Garner, J. P. et al. 2013. Can seeds help with the daily grind? American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 609 (Abstract #PS5).

Some laboratory mice gnaw food pellets without ingesting much of the gnawed material, resulting in the production of waste material called orts. The fact that this food grinding behavior is not seen in all individuals...