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. 
Mauthe von Degerfeld, M., Serpieri, M., Bonaffini, G. et al. 2023. Intranasal atomization of ketamine, medetomidine and butorphanol in pet rabbits using a mucosal atomization device. Animals 13(13), 2076.

A non-invasive method of drug delivery, intranasal atomization, has shown positive results in human medicine and in some animal species. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of intranasal atomization, compared to...

Verspeek, J., Stevens, J. M. G. 2023. Behavioral and physiological response to inequity in bonobos (Pan paniscus). American Journal of Primatology 85(1), e23455.

Inequity aversion (IA), the affective, cognitive, and behavioral response to inequitable outcomes, allows individuals to avoid exploitation and therefore stabilizes cooperation. The presence of IA varies across animal species, which has stimulated research to investigate...

Machado, M., Freitas Silveira, R. M., Machado Bittar, C. M. et al. 2023. Can the emotional state of calves be noticed by their facial expression and heart rate? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 260, 105874.

The aim of this study was to identify whether or not dairy calves change their facial expression and heart rate according to their emotional state when subjected to a stroking or umbrella stimulus. Thirty-two mixed-breed...

Buijs, S., Weller, J., Budan, A. 2023. When the measurement affects the object – Impact of a multi-part head/neck mounted wearable device on dairy cow behaviour, health and productivity. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 263, 105937.

Wearable technology is increasingly used in both dairy research and commercial dairy farming. Assessment of how such wearables affect cows is of major importance to rule out reductions in welfare and productivity that would hamper...

Luisi, B., Micheletta, J., Julle-Danière, E. et al. 2023. Monkeying around: Non-human primate behavioural responses to humans reproducing their facial expressions. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 265, 105990.

People are often observed mimicking animals’ facial expressions in an attempt to communicate with them. However, to date, there is limited understanding of how animals respond to humans reproducing their facial displays, or if this...

Lecorps, B., Woodroffe, R. E., von Keyserlingk, M. A. G. et al. 2023. Hunger affects cognitive performance of dairy calves. Biology Letters 19(1), 20220475.

Hunger remains a significant animal welfare concern as restricted feeding practices are common on farms. Studies to date have focused on negative effects on health and productivity but little research has addressed the feeling of...

Clark, F. E. 2023. In the zone: Towards a comparative study of flow state in primates. Animal Behavior and Cognition 10(1), 62–88.

Flow is an altered state of feeling ‘in the zone’ when fully absorbed in a challenge and is associated with positive affective state (feelings). Despite almost five decades of research, Flow has not yet been...

Farnsworth, K. D., Elwood, R. W. 2023. Why it hurts: With freedom comes the biological need for pain. Animal Cognition 26(4), 1259–1275.

We argue that pain is not needed to protect the body from damage unless the organism is able to make free choices in action selection. Then pain (including its affective and evaluative aspects) provides a...

Stevens, C., Hammonds, T., Hinchcliffe, J. et al. 2023. Report of the 2022 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group Meeting. Animal Technology and Welfare 22(2), 91–100.

The RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group has held a one-day meeting every autumn for the last 29 years, so that its members can discuss current welfare research, exchange views on welfare issues and share experiences of...

Alizadeh, E. A., Graf, K., Schiwon, J. et al. 2023. Thirty years of telemetry-based data acquisition for cardiovascular drug safety evaluation: Applications and optimization. Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods 122, 107279.

Conducting safety evaluations of new drugs using conscious animals has been a specialty of our working group for thirty years. In this article, we review the various technical challenges and solutions dealt with over the...

González-de-la-Vara, M., De Anda, F., Romano, M. C. 2023. Dead newborn calf affects behavior, cortisol, milk production, and reproductive performance in primiparous dairy cows. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 66, 20–28.

Little is known about the long-term effects of stillbirth on dairy cows. This study compared the behavior, serum and hair cortisol concentrations, production and quality of milk, and reproductive performance in primiparous dairy cows that...

Psarou, E., Vezoli, J., Schölvinck, M. L. et al. 2023. Modular, cement-free, customized headpost and connector-chamber implants for macaques. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 393, 109899.

Background: Neurophysiological studies with awake macaques typically require chronic cranial implants. Headpost and connector-chamber implants are used to allow head stabilization and to house connectors of chronically implanted electrodes, respectively. New method: We present long-lasting...

Uddin, J., McNeill, D. M., Phillips, C. J. C. 2023. Measuring emotions in dairy cows: Relationships between infrared temperature of key body parts, lateralised behaviour and milk production. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 269, 106115.

The emotions of cows could be reflected in their body temperature, productivity and behaviours. We tested whether there is a positive correlation between non-invasive infrared temperature (IRT) and right-side laterality (presumed to indicate anxiety), and...

Guerrero-Martin, S. M., Brill, S., Carlson, B. W. 2022. Development and implementation of a positive reinforcement training program for nonhuman primates in biomedical research. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 10(1) (January/February), 48-52.

Despite clear benefits of PRT for NHPs and biomedical research, investigators often view the investment in personnel expertise and time required to train animals as deterrents towards adopting PRT. We provide an example of how...

Knaebe, B., Weiss, C. C., Zimmermann, J. et al. 2022. The promise of behavioral tracking systems for advancing primate animal welfare. Animals 12(13), 1648.

Recent years have witnessed major advances in the ability of computerized systems to track the positions of animals as they move through large and unconstrained environments. These systems have so far been a great boon...

Schnaider, M. A., Heidemann, M. S., Silva, A. H. P. et al. 2022. Vocalization and other behaviors as indicators of emotional valence: The case of cow-calf separation and reunion in beef cattle. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 49, 28-35.

Vocalization may communicate the emotional state in vocal animals. We aimed to describe and compare vocalization and other behavioral signs of cow-calf pairs in emotionally negative and positive situations, and the potential influence of genetic...

Hamlaoui, A., Keeling, L., Burman, O. et al. 2022. Investigating attentional scope as a novel indicator of emotional state in animals. Scientific Reports 12(1), 17452.

In humans, contrasting emotional states can lead to a broadening or narrowing of attentional scope. Whether this is also the case in animals has yet to be investigated. If confirmed, measurement of attentional scope has...

Laméris, D. W., Verspeek, J., Salas, M. et al. 2022. Evaluating self-directed behaviours and their association with emotional arousal across two cognitive tasks in bonobos (Pan paniscus). Animals 12(21), 3002.

Self-directed behaviours (SDBs) are widely used as markers of emotional arousal in primates, and are commonly linked to negative arousal, or are used as indicators of stress or poor welfare. However, recent studies suggest that...

Serrano, C., Antonio, J. 2022. Ultrasound guided surgery as a refinement tool in oncology research. Animals 12(23), 3445.

Refinement is one of the ethical pillars of the use of animals in research. Ultrasonography is currently used in human medicine as a surgical tool for guided biopsies and this idea can be applied to...

Zablocki-Thomas, P. B., Rogers, F. D., Bales, K. L. 2022. Neuroimaging of human and non-human animal emotion and affect in the context of social relationships. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 16, 994504.

Long-term relationships are essential for the psychological wellbeing of humans and many animals. Positive emotions and affective experiences (e.g., romantic or platonic love) seem to be closely related to the creation and maintenance of social...

Lima, A. F., Lima, S. G. C., Nogueira-Filho, S. L. G. et al. 2022. Vocal expression of emotions in farmed spotted paca (Cuniculus paca). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 256, 105753.

Vocal emissions in non-human mammals can be used as non-invasive indicators of animal emotion and welfare. Therefore, we aimed to validate the use of acoustic parameters as indicators of affective states and welfare in farmed...

Stygar, A. H., Gómez, Y., Berteselli, G. V. et al. 2021. A systematic review on commercially available and validated sensor technologies for welfare assessment of dairy cattle. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 8, 634338.

In order to base welfare assessment of dairy cattle on real-time measurement, integration of valid and reliable precision livestock farming (PLF) technologies is needed. The aim of this study was to provide a systematic overview...

Uenishi, S., Oishi, K., Kojima, T. et al. 2021. A novel accelerometry approach combining information on classified behaviors and quantified physical activity for assessing health status of cattle: A preliminary study. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 235, 105220.

Evaluation of animal behavior provides information on health and well-being in animals. In this preliminary study, we investigated the effectiveness of an accelerometry approach to evaluate changes in health status of cattle by combining physical...

Prior, H., Holbrook, M. 2021. Strategies to encourage the adoption of social housing during cardiovascular telemetry recordings in non-rodents. Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods 108, 106959.

The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) is working with industry to promote social housing during cardiovascular telemetry recordings within non-rodent safety pharmacology and toxicology studies. Following surveys...

Sørensen, D., Cloutier, S., Gaskill, B. (Eds.). 2021. Animal-centric Care and Management - Enhancing Refinement in Biomedical Research. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.

The concept of the 3Rs (Refinement, Reduction and Replacement) has been used as a framework for improving the welfare of laboratory animals for the last half century. By establishing an animal-centric view on housing and...