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. 
Sullivan, K., Fairn, E., Adamo, S. A. 2016. Sickness behaviour in the cricket Gryllus texensis: Comparison with animals across phyla. Behavioural Processes 128, 134-143.

Immune activation alters behaviour (i.e. sickness behaviour) in animals across phyla and is thought to aid recovery from infection. Hypotheses regarding the adaptive function of different sickness behaviours (e.g. decreased movement and appetite) include the...

Gaskill, B. N., Stottler, A., Pritchett-Corning, K. R. et al. 2016. He’s getting under my skin! Comparing the sensitivity and specificity of dermal vs subcuticular lesions as a measure of aggression in mice. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 183, 77-85.

Aggression is the leading cause of death in young laboratory mice, representing a major welfare issue. Many of the experimental measures used in traditional aggression research, especially those focusing on territorial aggression (e.g., resident/intruder) are...

Lockworth, C., Monts de Oca, N. 2016. Rodent health: A picture is worth a thousand words. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 4(2) (June), 46-47.

An animal health program involves identification of health conditions, as well as treatment and disposition of rodents. In most facilities with a large rodent population, the initial identification of health conditions is typically accomplished by...

Barnard, S., Matthews, L., Messori, S. et al. 2016. Laterality as an indicator of emotional stress in ewes and lambs during a separation test. Animal Cognition 19(1), 207–214.

We assessed motor laterality in sheep to explore species-specific brain hemi-field dominance and how this could be affected by genetic or developmental factors. Further, we investigated whether directionality and strength of laterality could be linked...

Miller, A., Kitson, G., Skalkoyannis, B. et al. 2015. The effect of isoflurane anaesthesia and buprenorphine on the mouse grimace scale and behaviour in CBA and DBA/2 mice. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 172, 58-62.

Prevention or alleviation of pain in laboratory mice is a fundamental requirement of in vivoresearch. The mouse grimace scale (MGS) has the potential to be an effective and rapid means of assessing pain and analgesic...

Richardson, C. A. 2015. The power of automated behavioural homecage technologies in characterizing disease progression in laboratory mice: A review. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 163, 19-27.

Behavioural changes that occur as animals become sick have been characterized in a number of species and include the less frequent occurrence of ‘luxury behaviours’ such as playing, grooming and socialization. ‘Sickness behaviours’ or behavioural...

Barnard, S., Matthews, L. R., Messori, S., et al. 2015. Behavioural reactivity of ewes and lambs during partial and total social isolation. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 163, 89-97.

This work investigated the differences in the reactivity of Sarda (primiparous n = 18, multiparous n = 17) and Dorset (multiparous n = 8) breeds of sheep and their singleton lambs to two challenging test...

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...

Delgado San Martin, J. A., Worthington, P., Yates, J. W. T. 2015. Non-invasive 3D time-of-flight imaging technique for tumour volume assessment in subcutaneous models. Laboratory Animals 49(2), 168-171.

Subcutaneous tumour xenograft volumes are generally measured using callipers. This method is susceptible to inter- and intra-observer variability and systematic inaccuracies. Non-invasive 3D measurement using ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been considered, but...

Faller, K. M., McAndrew, D. J., Schneider, J. E. et al. 2015. Refinement of analgesia following thoracotomy and experimental myocardial infarction using the Mouse Grimace Scale. Experimental Physiology 100(2), 164-172.

What is the central question of this study? There is an ethical imperative to optimize analgesia protocols for laboratory animals, but this is impeded by our inability to recognize pain reliably. We examined whether the...

Cooke, G. M., Tonkins, B. M. 2015. Behavioural indicators of welfare exhibited by the common European cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis). Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research 3(4), 157-162.

The common European cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) is frequently found in public aquaria in Europe. These remarkable creatures make fantastic display animals due to their rapid colour/texture/behaviour changes associated with feeding or camouflage. They possess extremely...

Lima, F. B., de Oliveira, E. S. 2014. What is the impact of low testosterone levels on the anatomical and behavioral repertoire of long-term enriched housing of male mice? Behavioral Processes 108, 57-64.

Environmental enrichment is a strategy to improve animal welfare, providing brain plasticity with changes at cellular, molecular and behavioral levels. In order to test the long-term effects of enriched housing and the importance of testosterone...

Sneddon, L. U., Elwood, R. W., Adamo, S. A. et al. 2014. Defining and assessing animal pain. Animal Behaviour 97, 201-212.

The detection and assessment of pain in animals is crucial to improving their welfare in a variety of contexts in which humans are ethically or legally bound to do so. Thus clear standards to judge...

Burlingame, L. A., Na, J., Dunbar, M. et al. 2014. Behavioral ethogram as a health assessment tool in a feline vaccine study. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 610. (Abstract #P227).

For infectious disease studies, assessment of feline health is traditionally limited to metrics such as body temperature (BT), change in body weight (BW), and clinical signs (CS). Recently, behavioral ethograms designed for assessment of rabbits...

Braden, G.C., Rasmussen, S., Tolwani, R.J. 2014. Effects of breeding configuration on behavior, reproduction, and pathology in the laboratory mouse (Mus musculus). American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 605. (Abstract #P210).

While numerous published studies have evaluated the effect of housing density on the wellbeing of laboratory mice, little is known on the effect of breeding configuration. The eighth edition of the Guide for the Care...

Chapagain, D., Uvns-Moberg, K., Lidfors, L. M. 2014. Investigating the motivation to play in lambs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 160, 64-74.

The aim of this study was to identify behaviours and ear postures linked to the appetitive, consummatory and post-consummatory motivational phases of play in male lambs, and to evaluate how cortisol was affected by play...

Dunbar, M. L., David, E. M., Aline, M. R. et al. 2014. Validation of a novel behavioral ethogram for identification of postoperative pain in the guinea pig (Cavia porcellus). American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 538 (Abstract #PS48).

Although the guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) has been used in research for over a century and remains one of the most prevalent AWA covered species today, very little has been elucidated in the literature about...

Whittaker, A. L., Howarth, G. S. 2014. Use of spontaneous behaviour measures to assess pain in laboratory rats and mice: How are we progressing? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 151, 1-12.

The understanding and recognition of pain in laboratory rats and mice has advanced considerably in recent times. However, there is evidence that despite these advances, analgesics are still relatively underutilised in these species. One possible...

Kalliokoski, O., Teilmann, A. C., Jacoben, K. R. et al. 2014. Do singly housed male mice get lonely? Evidence of depressive states after short-term single housing of BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 597. (Abstract #P184).

Through behavioral and preference studies we know that mice prefer company. Laboratory mice should thus never be housed alone, if a viable option exists. Yet single housing is a fairly common practice, in particular with...

Rock, M. L., Rodriguez, K., Karas, A. Z. et al. 2014. The time-to-integrate-to-nest test as an indicator of wellbeing in laboratory mice. JAALAS 53(1), 24-28.

Minimizing and alleviating pain and distress in laboratory mice without compromising the methodologic integrity of research is a crucial goal. However, current methods for welfare assessment in mice are not well suited to cageside checks...

Rock, M. L., Karas, A. Z., Gallo, M. S. et al. 2014. Housing condition and nesting experience do not affect the time to integrate to nest test (TINT). Animal Welfare 23(4), 381-385.

Managing and assessing well-being in laboratory mice (Mus musculus) is both challenging and necessary. Assessments intended to detect negative welfare states in mice are usually performed via observation of animals in the home cage, but...

Lambeth, S. P., Schapiro, S. J., Bernacky, B. J. et al. 2013. Establishing 'quality of life' parameters using behavioural guidelines for humane euthanasia of captive non-human primates. Animal Welfare 22(4) 429-435.

Chronic pain and distress are universally accepted conditions that may adversely affect an animal’s quality of life (QOL) and lead to the humane euthanasia of an animal. At most research institutions and zoological parks in...

Hrapkiewicz, K., Colby, L. A., Denison, P. 2013. Clinical Laboratory Animal Medicine: An Introduction (4th Ed). Wiley-Blackwell, Ames, IA.

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...

Gaskill, B. N., Karas, A. Z., Garner. J. P. et al. 2013. Nest building as an indicator of health and welfare. JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments) 83, e51012.

We demonstrate the utility of nest building behavior in laboratory mice as an indicator of welfare. Nest scoring is a sensitive technique that is altered by temperature, illness, and aggression. The time to integrate into...

Andrist, C. A., Bigler, L. M., Wurbel, H. W. et al. 2012. Effects of group stability on aggression, stress and injuries in breeding rabbits. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 142(3-4), 182-188.

On Swiss rabbit breeding farms, group-housed does are usually kept singly for 12 days around parturition to avoid pseudogravidity, double litters and deleterious fighting for nests. After this isolation phase there is usually an integration...