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. 
Camerlink, I., Bijma, P., Kemp, B. et al. 2012. Relationship between growth rate and oral manipulation, social nosing, and aggression in finishing pigs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 142(1-2), 11-17.

Pigs may affect each other's health, welfare and productivity through their behaviour. The effect of a pig on the growth rate of its pen mates is partly heritable and is referred to as its social...

Rault, J.-L. 2012. Friends with benefits: Social support and its relevance for farm animal welfare. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 136(1), 1-14.

Despite growing interest in promoting positive welfare, rather than just alleviating poor welfare, potential measures of good welfare, and means to provide it, have remained elusive. In humans social support improves stress-coping abilities, health, and...

Walters, S. L., Torres-Urbano, C. J., Chichester, L. et al. 2012. The impact of huts on physiological stress: A refinement in post-transport housing of male guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus). Laboratory Animals 46(3), 220-224.

The ideal animal model would contribute no confounding variables in experimental science. Variables affect experimental design resulting in increased animal use or repeated studies. We demonstrated a simple refinement which may reduce the number of...

Gudsnuk, K., Champagne, F. A. 2012. Epigenetic influence of stress and social environment. ILAR Journal 53(3-4), 279-288.

Animal models of early-life stress and variation in social experience across the lifespan have contributed significantly to our understanding of the environmental regulation of the developing brain. Plasticity in neurobiological pathways regulating stress responsivity, cognition...

Parker, M. O., Millington, M. E., Combe, F. J. et al. 2012. Housing conditions differentially affect physiological and behavioural stress responses of zebrafish, as well as the response to anxiolytics. PLOS ONE 7(4), e34992.

Zebrafish are a widely utilised animal model in developmental genetics, and owing to recent advances in our understanding of zebrafish behaviour, their utility as a comparative model in behavioural neuroscience is beginning to be realised...

Zahorsky-Reeves, J. 2011. The choice of bedding substrate, route of blood collection, and method of glucose determination all affect fasting blood glucose levels in C57BL/6 mice. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 738 (Abstract #PS80).

This study compared 4 bedding substrates (corncob, paper, hardwood chip, and wire-bottomed cage inserts) and 2 routes of blood collection (lateral tail vein and retroorbital sinus) in 6 male C57BL/6NCrl mice. Mice were maintained with...

Hawkins, P., Burn, C., Hurst, J. et al. 2011. Report of the 2010 RSPCA/UFAW rodent welfare group meeting - The effect of husbandry on welfare and promoting good practice. Animal Technology and Welfare 10(2), 105-114.

The RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group holds a one-day meeting every autumn so that its members can discuss current welfare research, exchange views on rodent welfare issues and share experiences of the implementation of the 3Rs...

Baran, S. W., Froberg-Fejko, K., Lecker, J. et al. 2010. Post-surgical environmental enrichment in rodents. Enrichment Record 3, 4-6.

Environmental enrichment is a key component of rodent animal welfare since it influences the animal’s overall well-being, provides opportunities for activity, and encourages rodent appropriate behaviors. Many aspects of rodent enrichment have received a significant...

Araki, A. 2010. Using environmental enrichment to reduce fighting in mice. Tech Talk [The Newsletter for Laboratory Animal Science Technicians] 15(4), 6.

A colony of mice (base strain C57Bl6) was transferred to Oregon State University. Fighting was observed in six cages of males (2 to 5 mice per cage) at cage change, but not during daily checks...

Aasland, K. E., Skjerve, E., Smith, A. J. 2010. Quality of blood samples from the saphenous vein compared with the tail vein during multiple blood sampling of mice. Laboratory Animals 44(1), 25-29.

A large number of methods for obtaining blood from mice have been published. In our facility, saphenous venepuncture is considered the method of choice for bleeding mice and is believed to have a number of...

Fernandez, I., Pena, A., Del Teso, N. et al. 2010. Clinical biochemistry parameters in C57BL/6J mice after blood collection from the submandibular vein and retroorbital plexus. JAALAS 49(2), 202-206.

Collection of blood from the submandibular vein allows simple and rapid processing of many animals without anesthesia and facilitates rapid recovery with no signs of pain and discomfort in the mice. Here we compared the...

Harkness, J. E., Turner, P. V., Vande Woude, S. et al. 2010. Biology and Medicine of Rabbits and Rodents (5th Ed.). Wiley-Blackwell, Ames, Iowa.

The Biology and Medicine of Rabbits and Rodents provides concise, up - to - date, reasonably comprehensive information to anyone concerned with the health, care, and management of rabbits and rodents. The book is intended...

Ellegaard, L., Cunningham, A., Edwards, S. et al. 2010. Welfare of the minipig with special reference to use in regulatory toxicology studies. Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods 62(3), 167-183.

This paper reviews the animal welfare challenges associated with the use of minipigs in toxicology testing, and compares these to published knowledge on the other widely used non-rodent species (dogs and non-human primates). Welfare challenges...

Christensen, S. D., Mikkelsen, L. F., Fels, J. J. et al. 2009. Quality of plasma sampled by different methods for multiple blood sampling in mice. Laboratory Animals 43, 65-71.

For oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in mice, multiple blood samples need to be taken within a few hours from conscious mice. Today, a number of essential parameters may be analysed on very small amounts...

Branson, E. J. (Ed.) 2008. Fish Welfare. Blackwell Publishing Ltd: Oxford, UK, 300 p.

Fish have the same stress response and powers of nociception as mammals. Their behavioural responses to a variety of situations suggest a considerable ability for higher level neural processing – a level of consciousness equivalent...

Barley, J., Mikkelsen, L. F., Francis, R. et al. 2007. Enforced restraint of rodents: A discussion by the Refinement & Enrichment Forum. Animal Technology and Welfare 6(1), 11-13.

The question was asked: "Rodents are often restrained for data collection procedures, such as blood collection and injection, by coaxing them into tubes, for example syringe cylinders or perspex tubes. What can be done to...

Van Loo, P. L. P., Kuin, N., Sommer, R. et al. 2007. Impact of 'living apart together' on postoperative recovery of mice compared with social and individual housing. Laboratory Animals 41(4), 441-455.

We investigated whether housing two female mice in a cage, separated by a grid partition ('living apart together') counters the adverse effects of individual housing on postoperative recovery. Results indicated that socially housed mice appear...

Gonder, J. C., Laber, K. 2007. A renewed look at laboratory rodent housing and management. ILAR Journal 48(1), 29-46.

In this article, recent publications are examined to determine the potential impact of new scientific evidence on current practices for the housing and care of laboratory rodents. The discussion points out recent advances in technology...

Van Loo, P., Skoumbourdis, E., Reinhardt, V. 2006. Postsurgical pairing: A discussion by the Refinement & Enrichment Forum. Animal Technology and Welfare 5(1), 17-19.

Our experience-based discussion suggests that social animals benefit from compatible companionship during post-operative recovery. The traditional practice of keeping animals alone in an unfamiliar environment after surgery increases the subjects surgery-associated stress. Providing a familiar...

Smith, A. C., Swindle, M. M. 2006. Preparation of swine for the laboratory. ILAR Journal 47(4), 358-363.

Swine are an important model in many areas of biomedical research. These animals have been used predominantly as preclinical models involving surgical and interventional protocols. The systems most commonly studied include cardiovascular, integumentary, digestive, and...

Meijer, M. K., Spruijt, B. M., van Zutphen, L. F. M. et al. 2006. Effect of restraint and injection methods on heart rate and body temperature in mice. Laboratory Animals 40(4), 82-391.

It was found that heart rate (HR), and to a lesser extent also body temperature (BT), parallels plasma corticosterone (pCORT) values after subjecting the animals to different methods of restraint. Secondly, the acute stress response...

Conour, L. A., Murray, K. A., Brown, M. J. 2006. Preparation of animals for research -- Issues to consider for rodents and rabbits. ILAR Journal 47(4), 283-293.

This article provides details to consider when preparing to use animals in biomedical research. The stress of transport and receipt of animals into a new environment mandate the need for a period of stabilization and...

Luzzi, M., Skoumbourdis, E., Baumans, V. et al. 2005. Collecting blood from rodents: A discussion by the Laboratory Animal Refinement and Enrichment Forum. Animal Technology and Welfare 4, 99-102.

The question was asked: "In your own experience, what is the least disturbing technique - from the subject's point of view! - of blood collection for rodents?" In summary, it is fair to conclude the...

Bayne, K. 2005. Potential for unintended consequences of environmental enrihment for laboratory animals and research results. ILAR Journal 46(2), 129-139.

Many aspects of the research animal's housing environment are controlled for quality and/or standardization. Of recent interest is the potential for environmental enrichment to have unexpected consequences such as unintended harm to the animal, or...

Banjanin, S., Barley, J., Bell, L. et al. 2004. Environmental enrichment for guinea pigs: A Discussion by the Laboratory Animal Refinement & Enrichment Forum. Animal Technology and Welfare 3(3), 161-163.

The question was raised how the environment of guinea pigs can be best enriched in the research laboratory setting. In summary, social-housing is the most species-appropriate living environment for guinea pigs. If a research protocol...