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. 
Stevens, C., Finnegan, E., Clarkson, J. et al. 2020. Report of the 2019 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare meeting. Animal Technology and Welfare 19(2), 101-111.

The RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group has held a one-day meeting every autumn for the last 26 years, so that its members can discuss current welfare research, exchange views on welfare issues, and share experiences of...

Szymczyk, K., Gabriel, S., Zegre Cannon, C. 2020. Removing the blindfold in blind intubation: A summary of tips and tricks for successful rabbit intubation. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 8(5) (September/October), 76-81.

Intubation in rabbits can be difficult due to their unique anatomical features. Large incisors, long narrow oral cavities, thick tongues, and limited mobility of the temporomandibular joint make laryngeal visualization difficult. It is the hope...

Acharya, R., Rault, J.-L. 2020. Risk factors for feather-damaging behavior in companion parrots: A social media study. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 40, 43-49.

Studies on the etiology of behavioral problems often involve interference in the animal's routine or reliance on owners' self-reports like surveys. Gathering data from videos posted on social media, a technique coined ‘video mining’, offers...

Bill, J., Rauterberg, S. L., Herbrandt, S. et al. 2020. Agonistic behavior and social hierarchy in female domestic rabbits kept in semi-groups. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 38, 21-31.

In semi-natural mixed-sex groups, rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) organize their social life by forming a hierarchy, which is characterized by linearity and stability. Compared to the natural environment, many factors are different in contemporary breeding systems...

Bodden, C., Wewer, M., Kästner, N. et al. 2021. Not all mice are alike: Mixed-strain housing alters social behaviour. Physiology & Behavior 228, 113220.

The use of millions of mice in scientific studies worldwide emphasises the continuing need for a reduction of sample sizes, however, not at the expense of scientific validity. Split-plot designs have been suggested to enhance...

Meyer, N., Kröger, M., Thümmler, J. et al. 2020. Impact of three commonly used blood sampling techniques on the welfare of laboratory mice: Taking the animal’s perspective. PLOS ONE 15(9), e0238895.

Laboratory mice are the most frequently used animals in biomedical research. In accordance with guidelines for humane handling, several blood sampling techniques have been established. While the effects of these procedures on blood quality and...

Theil, J. H., Ahloy-Dallaire, J., Weber, E. M. et al. 2020. The epidemiology of fighting in group-housed laboratory mice. Scientific Reports 10(1), 16649.

Injurious home-cage aggression (fighting) in mice affects both animal welfare and scientific validity. It is arguably the most common potentially preventable morbidity in mouse facilities. Existing literature on mouse aggression almost exclusively examines territorial aggression...

Grífols, R., Zamora, C., Ortega-Saez, I. et al. 2020. Postweaning grouping as a strategy to reduce singly housed male mice. Animals 10(11), 2135.

Rearing laboratory mice in groups is important since social isolation after weaning induces brain alterations, which entails behavioral abnormalities in adulthood. Age is an important factor when grouping males of different litters due to inter-male...

Abela, C. 2020. Alternative training method using a mouse simulator in intravenous lateral tail vein procedures. Animal Technology and Welfare 19(3), 249-250.

The purpose of this study was to reduce or replace mouse cadavers for use in procedural training. All participants had mixed experience in various technical procedures such as oral gavage, intraperitoneal injections, etc., but none...

Scarborough, J., Mueller, F., Arban, R. et al. 2020. Preclinical validation of the micropipette-guided drug administration (MDA) method in the maternal immune activation model of neurodevelopmental disorders. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity 88, 461-470.

Pharmacological treatments in laboratory rodents remain a cornerstone of preclinical psychopharmacological research and drug development. There are numerous ways in which acute or chronic pharmacological treatments can be implemented, with each method having certain advantages...

Gjendal, K., Kiersgaard, M. K., Abelson, K. et al. 2020. Comparison of sublingual, facial and retro-bulbar blood sampling in mice in relation to animal welfare and blood quality. Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods 103, 106680.

Introduction: Repeated blood sampling is a common procedure in laboratory mice, but at present it is unknown which technique has the least impact on the animals when large or repeated blood samples are required. Retro-bulbar...

Woodard, C. L., Nasrallah, W. B., Samiei, B. V. et al. 2020. PiDose: An open-source system for accurate and automated oral drug administration to group-housed mice. Scientific Reports 10, 11584.

Drug treatment studies in laboratory mice typically employ manual administration methods such as injection or gavage, which can be time-consuming to perform over long periods and cause substantial stress in animals. These stress responses may...

Lefebvre, E., Granon, S., Chauveau, F. 2020. Social context increases ultrasonic vocalizations during restraint in adult mice. Animal Cognition 23(2), 351–359.

Adult mice emit many ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) during social interaction tasks, but only a few studies have yet reported USVs in stressed adult mice. Our aim was to study which experimental conditions favor USV emission...

McKay, L., Hunninck, L., Sheriff, M. 2020. A field-based adaptation of the classic morris water maze to assess learning and memory in a free-living animal. Animal Behavior and Cognition 9(4), 396–407.

Free-living animals rely on cognitive functions, such as learning and memory, for numerous aspects of their survival. However, research involving these mechanisms is often limited to the laboratory where animals are far removed from natural...

Melotti, L., Kästner, N., Eick, A. K. et al. 2019. Can live with ‘em, can live without ‘em: Pair housed male C57BL/6J mice show low aggression and increasing sociopositive interactions with age, but can adapt to single housing if separated. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 214, 79-88.

The basic question as to whether male laboratory mice should be singly or group housed represents a major animal welfare concern within current laboratory animal legislation and husbandry. To better understand the behavioural and physiological...

Dal Bosco, A., Mugnai, C., Martino, M. et al. 2019. Housing rabbit does in a combi system with removable walls: Effect on behaviour and reproductive performance. Animals 9(8), 528.

We evaluated the effects of two types of colony cages, in which rabbit does were always in a group (C1), and where they were in combi cages furnished with removable internal walls to allow both...

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...

Gerencsér, Z., Matics, Z., Szabó, R. et al. 2019. Aggressiveness, mating behaviour and lifespan of group housed rabbit does. Animals 9(10), 708.

Aggressiveness is one of the main problems in group housing of rabbit does. The aim of the experiment was to investigate the frequency of aggressiveness and mating behaviour as well as the lifespan of does...

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...

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...

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...