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. 

Cardiovascular exercise (CVE) is associated with healthy aging and reduced risk of disease in humans, with similar benefits seen in animals. Most rodent studies, however, have used shorter intervention periods of a few weeks to...

It is argued that mice have poor colour vision and are insensitive to the colour red, which they in theory perceive as dark. Therefore, the red tinted Bio-Serv Mouse Igloo® is used to provide mice...

Environmental stimuli are critical in preclinical research that utilizes laboratory animals to model human brain disorders. The main goal of environmental enrichment (EE) is to provide laboratory animals with better choice of activity and greater...

The provision of environmental enrichment to numerous species of laboratory animals is generally considered routine husbandry. However, mouse enrichment has proven to be very complex due to the often contradictory outcomes (animal health and welfare...

Prolonged chronic stress has deleterious effects on immune function and is associated with numerous negative health outcomes. The spleen harbors one-fourth of the body’s lymphocytes and mediates both innate and adaptive immune responses. However, the...

When introducing environmental enrichment in laboratory animals, positive and/or negative effects on behavioural and physiological parameters should be evaluated. This three-step randomised controlled trial in male C57BL/6 mice investigated the effect of supplementing the environment...

As part of routine husbandry, an increasing number of laboratory mice receive nesting material in addition to standard bedding material in their cages. Nesting material improves health outcomes and physiological performance in mice that receive...

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer diagnosed in women, and the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths in women in North America. The use of laboratory mice in research is an...

Studies typically involve groups of animals that are injected with placebo compounds. As there are studies that demonstrate that restraint and injection can affect behavior and corticosteroid levels in rodents, the basis of such placebo...

Due to potential adverse effects on animal wellbeing, the use of nonpharmaceutical-grade substances in animal research must be scientifically justified in cases where a pharmaceutical-grade version of the substance exists. This requirement applies to all...

Discrepancies exist between the preferred temperature range for mice (26 to 32 °C) and current recommendations (20 to 26 °C), which may alter metabolism and negatively affect studies using mice. Previous research indicates that nesting...

Environmental enrichment items such as running wheels can promote the wellbeing of laboratory mice. Growing evidence suggests that wheel running simulates exercise effects in many mouse models of human conditions, but this activity also might...

It is widely known that the psychological wellbeing of captive animals can become compromised by a captive environment that lacks proper environmental stimulation. Environmental enrichment programs have become the norm in captive environments yet research...

As the use of enrichment in zoos has become a standardized husbandry practice, the continued improvement of enrichment programs should be concomitant with empirical validation of those practices. The role of scent as enrichment remains...

"Do any of you give cooked food like pasta, potatoes or vegetables to non-human primates? What’s your experience? Do the animals benefit from cooked food; do they like it; does it affect their health in...

Factors leading to the harmful consumption of substances, like alcohol and sucrose, involve a complex interaction of genes and the environment. While we cannot control the genes we inherit, we can modify our environment. Understanding...

More than a quarter of a century has elapsed since the Animal Welfare Act mandated that research facilities develop and follow a plan to promote the psychological well-being of captive primates. Since passage of this...

Tenascin-C (TnC) is an extracellular matrix glycoprotein implicated in a variety of processes ranging from brain development to synaptic plasticity in the adult vertebrates. Although the role of the TnC gene in regulation of behavior...

Specifically designed restraint chairs are the preferred method of restraint for research studies that require NHP to sit in place for sustained periods of time. In light of increasing emphasis on refinement of restraint to...

A survey was conducted regarding zebrafish Danio rerio use for scientific research with a focus on: anaesthesia and euthanasia; housing and husbandry; breeding and production; refinement opportunities. A total of 98 survey responses were received...

The act of grooming has been found to greatly decrease stress, heart rate, and cortisol levels in nonhuman primates; this decrease in stress and cortisol is seen in the animal being groomed, as well as...

Since funding can be scarce, I seek novel and economical ways to promote the psychological wellbeing of the animals through environmental enrichment and allow research animals to express species-specific behaviors and control their environment to...

Primates are highly social animals and appropriate enrichment is required to ensure their psychological well-being. Mirrors are sometimes used as social or sensory environmental enrichment. In this paper we investigate the suitability of mirrors as...

Lactating mice in laboratory conditions are thought to be under considerable stress. Dams may manifest this stress through a decrease in milk yield and/or increase in infanticide. The purpose of this study was to examine...

Recently environmental enrichment for laboratory housed fish has received increasing levels of attention from a variety of interested parties from hobbyists, through animal technologists and aquaculturists, to scientists. Over the last few years, the growth...