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 that include earlier publications) can be filtered by Animal Type, Setting, and Topic. Most publications older than 2010 can only be searched by keyword. 
Doucet, M. R., Laevski, A. M., Doiron, J. A. et al. 2024. Locomotor activity as an effective measure of the severity of inflammatory arthritis in a mouse model. PLOS ONE 19(1), e0291399.

Objective Mouse models are valuable in preclinical studies of inflammatory arthritis. However, current methods for measuring disease severity or responses to treatment are not optimal. In this study a smart cage system using multiple sensors...

Lambert, H., Cornish, A., Waley, D. 2024. The value of regulating stocking densities in aquaculture must not be dismissed: A reply to Saraiva et al. 2022. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.

We would like to rebut the argument made by Saraiva et al. (1) in their paper “Finding the “golden stocking density”: a balance between fish welfare and farmers' perspectives,” that stocking densities should not be...

Golledge, H., Richardson, C. (Eds.) 2024. The UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management of Laboratory and Other Research Animals (9th ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. 1040 p.

The latest edition of the seminal reference on the care and management of laboratory and research animals. The newly revised ninth edition of The UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management of Laboratory and Other...

Mantz, M., Pugerud, A. 2024. Overcoming the hurdles of lab animal enrichment: Natural behaviors vs. scientific need. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 12(1) (January/February), 32-34.

The Animal Resources Core (ARC) at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute (AWRI) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) faces many of the same challenges other institutions manage in terms of enrichment for laboratory animals. A Behavior...

Fitzwater, A., Zhang, L. 2024. A cost-effective restraint method for safer subcutaneous scruff injections and reducing stress in mice and handlers. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 12(1) (January/February), 52-53.

Subcutaneous injection is a vital technique in mouse-based biomedical research. Compared to other injections, the subcutaneous method poses fewer technical challenges and reduces acute toxicity risks due to slower absorption. Several suitable subcutaneous injection sites...

Bartelik, A., Čater, M., Cevik, Ö. S. et al. 2024. Focus on novel approaches: Home-cage monitoring of laboratory mice. Scandinavian Journal of Laboratory Animal Science 50, 1–5.

Assessment of behavioural phenotype is crucial for the evaluation of various disease models, particularly inlaboratory rodents. Traditionally, this includes performing a variety of conventional tests where animals areremoved from their home-cages and placed in behavioural...

Hull, M. A., Nunamaker, E. A., Reynolds, P. S. 2024. Effects of refined handling on reproductive indices of BALB/cJ and CD-1 IGS mice. JAALAS 63(1), 3–9.

Current mouse handling methods during cage change procedures can cause stress and potentially compromise animal welfare. Our previous study of breeding C57BL/6J mice found modest increases in pup production and a significant reduction in preweaning...

Kaleel, K. L., Secoura, P. L., Muñoz-Pérez, J. P. et al. 2024. Endoscopy and rectal enema for fecal collection in wild sea turtles (Chelonia mydas, Eretmochelys imbricata) in a field setting. Zoo Biology 43(1), 55–60.

Forty-seven free-ranging sea turtles (46- Chelonia mydas, 1- Eretmochelys imbricata) were examined via novel use of an endoscopy combined with a rectal enema to obtain large fecal sample volumes. The cloaca was insufflated using an...

Kitchenham, L., MacLellan, A., Paletta, P. et al. 2024. Do housing-induced changes in brain activity cause stereotypic behaviours in laboratory mice? Behavioural Brain Research 462, 114862.

Abnormal repetitive stereotypic behaviours (SBs) (e.g. pacing, body-rocking) are common in animals with poor welfare (e.g. socially isolated/in barren housing). But how (or even whether) poor housing alters animals’ brains to induce SBs remains uncertain...

Silva-Almeida, C., Muniz, S. C. A., Jobim, C. M. N. et al. 2024. Perinatal environmental enrichment changes anxiety-like behaviours in mice and produces similar intergenerational benefits in offspring. Behavioural Brain Research 456, 114700.

Environmental enrichment implemented in early life is able to induce long-term changes in gene expression, synaptic function and behavioural responses. In this study, we evaluated the adult behavioural effects of perinatal environment enrichment in male...

Wang, Q., Wang, Y., Tian, Y. et al. 2024. Social environment enrichment alleviates anxiety-like behavior in mice: Involvement of the dopamine system. Behavioural Brain Research 456, 114687.

Rearing environment plays a vital role in maintaining physical and mental health of both animals and humans. Plenty of studies have proved that physical environment enrichment in adolescence has protective effects on emotion, social behavior...

Benjamin, K. 2024. Make training easier with a scruffing restraint device. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 12(2) (March/April), 38-39.

If you conduct technical training with mice at your institution, a scruffing restraint device is a valuable addition to your training aid tool kit. A scruffing restraint device, such as the ScruffGuard offered by Research...

Alamaw, E. D., Casey, K. M., Tien, K. et al. 2024. Carprofen attenuates postoperative mechanical and thermal hypersensitivity after plantar incision in immunodeficient NSG mice. Comparative Medicine 74(2), 105–114.

Immunodeficient NSG mice are reported to be less responsive to buprenorphine analgesia. Here, we used NSG mice to compare the efficacy of the commonly used dose of carprofen (5 mg/kg) with 5 and 10 times...

Hutchinson, A. J., Duffy, B. M., Rego, L. H. et al. 2024. Paper towel shredding as a novel, affordable, noninvasive method for detecting arousals in hibernating rodents. Lab Animal 53(5), 117–120.

Many research groups explore the regulation of hibernation or compare the physiology of heterothermic mammals between the torpid and aroused, euthermic states. Current methods for monitoring torpor (for example, infrared cameras, body temperature or heart-rate...

Lawton, S. B., Grobe, C. C., Reho, J. J. et al. 2024. Differences in fluid, electrolyte, and energy balance in C57BL/6J mice (Mus musculus) in metabolic caging at thermoneutral or standard room temperatures. JAALAS 63(2), 190–200.

The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals recommends mice be pair or group housed and provided with nesting materials. These provisions support social interactions and are also critical for thermoregulatory behaviors such...

Usategui-Martín, A., Liria - Loza, A., Valverde, R. A. et al. 2024. Husbandry protocols for juvenile loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) based on stress response to stocking density and dry-dock time. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 27(3), 589–601.

When necessary, sea turtles are held captive for veterinarian care and research purposes. Protocols and basic guidelines have been described for husbandry of sea turtles with veterinarian needs but not considering physiological indicators of animal...

Arruda, I. F., Amendoeira, M. R. R., Bonifácio, T. F. et al. 2024. Humane endpoints in Swiss Webster mice infected with Toxoplasma gondii RH strain. Animals 14(9), 1326.

The highly virulent Toxoplasma gondii RH strain is maintained through successive passages in mice, but there is still a lack of studies that refine these procedures from a 3Rs perspective, where humanitarian ideals aim to...

Dijkhuizen, S., Van Ginneken, L. M. C., IJpelaar, A. H. C. et al. 2024. Impact of enriched environment on motor performance and learning in mice. Scientific Reports 14(1), 5962.

Neuroscience heavily relies on animal welfare in laboratory rodents as it can significantly affect brain development, cognitive function and memory formation. Unfortunately, laboratory animals are often raised in artificial environments devoid of physical and social...

Grandjean, J., Lake, E. M. R., Pagani, M. et al. 2024. What N Is N-ough for MRI-based animal neuroimaging? eNeuro 11(3), ENEURO.0531-23.2024.

Fueled by the recent and controversial brain-wide association studies in humans, the animal neuroimaging community has also begun questioning whether using larger sample sizes is necessary for ethical and effective scientific progress. In this opinion...

Grigsby, K., Usmani, Z., Anderson, J. et al. 2024. Development and implementation of a Dependable, Simple, and Cost-effective (DSC), open-source running wheel in High Drinking in the Dark and Heterogeneous Stock/Northport mice. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 17.

Maintaining healthy and consistent levels of physical activity (PA) is a clinically proven and low-cost means of reducing the onset of several chronic diseases and may provide an excellent strategy for managing mental health and...

Heuser, M., Gonzalez-Uarquin, F., Nuber, M. et al. 2024. A 3D-printed dummy for training distal phalanx amputation in mice. Animals 14(8), 1253.

The development of realistic dummies for training the distal phalanx amputation (DPA) technique in mouse pups is a promising alternative to reduce and replace animals in training for research and teaching. To test this, we...

Lima, A. F. de, Lima, S. G. C., Nogueira-Filho, S. L. G. et al. 2024. Object play as a positive emotional state indicator for farmed spotted paca (Cuniculus paca). Animals 14(1), 78.

We aimed to assess whether object play can be used as a positive emotional state indicator for farmed spotted pacas (Cuniculus paca) by examining its association with other positive welfare markers including affiliative behavior and...

Lipp, H.-P., Krackow, S., Turkes, E. et al. 2024. IntelliCage: The development and perspectives of a mouse- and user-friendly automated behavioral test system. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 17.

IntelliCage for mice is a rodent home-cage equipped with four corner structures harboring symmetrical double panels for operant conditioning at each of the two sides, either by reward (access to water) or by aversion (non-painful...

Lucas, R. J., Allen, A. E., Brainard, G. C. et al. 2024. Recommendations for measuring and standardizing light for laboratory mammals to improve welfare and reproducibility in animal research. PLOS Biology 22(3), e3002535.

Light enables vision and exerts widespread effects on physiology and behavior, including regulating circadian rhythms, sleep, hormone synthesis, affective state, and cognitive processes. Appropriate lighting in animal facilities may support welfare and ensure that animals...

Sanz-Moreno, A., da Silva-Buttkus, P., Terwee, C. B. et al. 2024. Assessment of quality of life and wellbeing in mouse preclinical research – A scoping review. Neuroscience Applied 3, 104058.

Mouse preclinical research is of great scientific interest to understand the mechanisms of human diseases and test potential therapeutic interventions. Researchers characterize biological and physiological traits, behaviors and disease symptoms using standardized phenotypic protocols in...