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. 
Cho, E., Walsh, C. A., D’Angelo-Gavrish, N. M. et al. 2023. Effects of housing density on reproductive performance, intracage ammonia, and welfare of mice continuously housed as breeders in standard mouse and rat caging. JAALAS 62(2), 116–122.

Maintaining compliance with cage density recommendations in The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals precludes continuous trio breeding in standard-sized mouse cages. This study evaluated and compared several parameters of reproductive performance...

Illario, J. A., Osborn, K. G., Garcia, A. V. et al. 2023. Comparative pharmacokinetics and injection site histopathology in nude mice treated with long-acting buprenorphine formulations. JAALAS 62(2), 147–152.

Two long-acting formulations of buprenorphine are commercially available as analgesics for rodents. However, these drugs have not yet been studied in nude mice. We sought to investigate whether the manufacturer-recommended or labeled mouse doses of...

Kim, J., Cannon, B. A., Freeman, L. E. et al. 2023. High-dose meloxicam provides improved analgesia in female CD1 mice: A pharmacokinetic and efficacy study. JAALAS 62(1), 74–80.

Meloxicam is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory analgesic drug that is often used in mice. However, doses of 1 to 5 mg/kg given twice daily were recently reported to provide inadequate analgesia. Some studies suggest that doses...

Riddell, D. L., Hyndman, T. H., Bowden, R. S. et al. 2023. Use of a low-calorie flavored gel to facilitate oral self-administration of analgesics in mice. JAALAS 62(2), 163–169.

The goals of this study were to determine whether mice would adapt to a low-calorie flavored water gel as their sole source of hydration and whether the addition of acetaminophen, tramadol, meloxicam, or buprenorphine to...

Tirado-Muñiz, N., Spangler, T. L., Van Rooyen, H. et al. 2023. Evaluation of cage mate–induced postsurgical trauma in mice. JAALAS 62(2), 170–178.

Although mice are social animals, individual housing is sometimes requested after surgery. We questioned whether pair-housing mice after surgery resulted in greater trauma to the surgical site as compared with single housing. We further evaluated...

Yang, P., Hish, G., Lester, P. A. 2023. Comparison of systemic extended-release buprenorphine and local extended-release bupivacaine-meloxicam as analgesics for laparotomy in mice. JAALAS 62(5), 416–422.

Extended-release (ER) local anesthetics can be used in multi-modal analgesia or in situations in which systemic analgesics may alter animal physiology and thus introduce interpretational confounds. In this study, we compared the analgesic efficacy of...

Kitchenham, L., Nazal, B., Adcock, A. et al. 2022. Why does lifelong conventional housing reduce the sociability of female mice? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 246, 105532.

Compared to peers raised in well-resourced, 'enriched' environments (‘EE’), female laboratory mice from conventional barren cages are more aggressive to their cage-mates, and less sociable with familiar non-cage-mates (especially if these too are from conventional...

Miller, A. L., Clarkson, J. M., Quigley, C. et al. 2022. Evaluating pain and analgesia effectiveness following routine castration in rabbits using behavior and facial expressions. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 782486.

Prevention of pain in rabbits is a priority for both welfare and validity of scientific data. We aimed to determine if the rabbit grimace scale (RbtGS) could be used as a viable, rapid assessment tool...

Denommé, M. R., Mason, G. J. 2022. Social buffering as a tool for improving rodent welfare. JAALAS 61(1), 5-14.

The presence of a conspecific can be calming to some species of animal during stress, a phenomenon known as social buffering. For rodents, social buffering can reduce the perception of and reaction to aversive experiences...

Guillaumin, A., Vlcek, B., Wallén-Mackenzie, Å. 2022. Improving well-being and survival in the 6-OHDA lesion model of Parkinson´s disease in mice: Literature review and step-by-step protocol. Scandinavian Journal of Animal Science 48(1), 1-21.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the most common neurodegenerative motor disorder and primarily affects movement control but also a range of non-motor functions. With unknown etiology and lack of cure, much research is dedicated to unravel...

Bertoni, V., Spiezio, C., Regaiolli, B. et al. 2022. Group reunion in zoo European wildcats using cat appeasing pheromone (CAP) and gradual release of the animals in the exhibit—A case study. Animals 12(10), 1302.

The union or reunion of animals with social groups can be a challenging situation, and little has been published about it when solitary species are concerned. Therefore, the aim of the present study was two-fold...

Paterson, E. A., Turner, P. V. 2022. Challenges with assessing and treating pain in research primates: A focused survey and literature review. Animals 12(17), 2304.

Research primates may undergo surgical procedures making effective pain management essential to ensure good animal welfare and unbiased scientific data. Adequate pain mitigation is dependent on whether veterinarians, technicians, researchers, and caregivers can recognize and...

Aldhshan, M. S., Mizuno, T. M. 2022. Effect of environmental enrichment on aggression and the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor transcript variants in group-housed male mice. Behavioural Brain Research 433, 113986.

Social and environmental factors influence behavior via modulation of brain physiological functions. Environmental enrichment (EE) is an animal housing technique that provides complex sensory, motor, and social stimulation, leading to modifications in the innate aggressiveness...

Chan, G., Si, C., Nichols, M. R. et al. 2022. Assessment of the safety and efficacy of pre-emptive use of extended-release buprenorphine for mouse laparotomy. JAALAS 61(4), 381-387.

Buprenorphine is commonly used to control postoperative pain in rodents. Short-acting formulations of buprenorphine (bup-HCl) require frequent handling and restraint of animals for appropriate dosing, which can be stressful and confound research outcomes. Ethiqa XR...

Zevnik, B., Jerchow, B., Buch, T. 2022. 3R measures in facilities for the production of genetically modified rodents. Lab Animal 51(6), 162-177.

Sociocultural changes in the human–animal relationship have led to increasing demands for animal welfare in biomedical research. The 3R concept is the basis for bringing this demand into practice: Replace animal experiments with alternatives where...

Scariot, P. P., Gobatto, C. A., Polisel, E. E. et al. 2022. Early-life mice housed in standard stocking density reduce the spontaneous physical activity and increase visceral fat deposition before reaching adulthood. Laboratory Animals 56(4), 344-355.

Laboratory rodents spend the entire day housed in standard cages that provide a restricted area for movements and might, therefore, limit physical activity. However, it has not been tested in immature rodents of ages ranging...

Khalajzeyqami, Z., Grandi, A., Ferrini, E. et al. 2022. Pivotal role of micro-CT technology in setting up an optimized lung fibrosis mouse model for drug screening. PLOS ONE 17(6), e0270005.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive disease with no curative pharmacological treatment. The most used animal model of IPF for anti-fibrotic drug screening is bleomycin (BLM)-induced lung fibrosis. However, several issues have been reported...

Hohlbaum, K., Merle, R., Frahm, S. et al. 2022. Effects of separated pair housing of female C57BL/6JRj mice on well-being. Scientific Reports 12(1), 8819.

In laboratory animal facilities, it is a common code of practice to house female mice in groups. However, some experimental conditions require to house them individually, even though social isolation may impair their well-being. Therefore...

Chen, J., Xu, X., Dalhaimer, P. et al. 2022. Tetra-primer amplification-refractory mutationsystem (ARMS)—PCR for genotyping mouse leptin gene mutation. Animals 12(19), 2680.

Due to spontaneous deficiency in leptin, ob/ob mice are one of the most commonly used experimental animal models in diabetes research. In this study, we reported a quick and easy-to-conduct genotyping method using tetra-primer amplification...

Chen, T., Zhou, Z.-Y., Liu, J.-Y. et al. 2022. Impact of partial bile duct ligation with or without repeated magnetic resonance imaging examinations in mice. Scientific Reports 12(1), 21014.

Partial bile duct ligation (pBDL) is considered a well-tolerated cholestatic model. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one of the most widely used tools in noninvasive imaging. However, no systematic studies have reported the possible effects...

Saraiva, J. L., Rachinas-Lopes, P., Arechavala-Lopez, P. 2022. Finding the “golden stocking density”: A balance between fish welfare and farmers’ perspectives. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 930221.

The effects of stocking density on fish welfare are complex and involve many interacting parameters. This complex relationship between fish welfare, stocking density and influencing factors make it challenging to define a specific optimal (“golden”)...

Cait, J., Cait, A., Scott, R. W. et al. 2022. Conventional laboratory housing increases morbidity and mortality in research rodents: Results of a meta-analysis. BMC Biology 20(1), 15.

Over 120 million mice and rats are used annually in research, conventionally housed in shoebox-sized cages that restrict natural behaviours (e.g. nesting and burrowing). This can reduce physical fitness, impair thermoregulation and reduce welfare (e.g...

Brough, D. W., Murkin, J. T., Amos, H. E. et al. 2022. Comparing variability in measurement of subcutaneous tumors in mice using 3D thermal imaging and calipers. Comparative Medicine 72(6), 364–375.

Repeatable tumor measurements are key to accurately assessing tumor growth and treatment efficacy. A preliminary study that we conducted showed that a novel 3D and thermal imaging system (3D-TI) for measuring subcutaneous tumors in rodents...

Gilmour, K. M., Bard, B. 2022. Social buffering of the stress response: Insights from fishes. Biology Letters 18(10), 20220332.

Social buffering of stress refers to the effect of a social partner in reducing the cortisol or corticosterone response to a stressor. It has been well studied in mammals, particularly those that form pair bonds...

Anderson, M. G., Campbell, A. M., Kuhn, D. D. et al. 2022. Impact of environmental complexity and stocking density on affective states of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Animal Cognition 25(5), 1331–1343.

Environmental condition, such as environmental complexity or stocking density, can directly or indirectly influence animal emotion and ultimately, affective state. Affective states of animals can be assessed through judgement bias tests, evaluating responses to ambiguous...