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. 
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...

Robinson, L. M., Weiss, A. (Eds.) 2023. Nonhuman Primate Welfare: From History, Science, and Ethics to Practice. Springer, Cham, Switzerland. 671 p.

This volume reviews the broad topic of welfare in nonhuman primates under human care. Chapters detail the history of primates in captivity, ethical and legal issues surrounding the use of nonhuman primates as entertainment or...

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...

Gauy, A. C. dos S., Bolognesi, M. C., Gonçalves-de-Freitas, E. 2023. Body tactile stimulation reduces the effects of high stocking density on the welfare of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). Fishes 8(6), 320.

High stocking density is used in aquaculture to optimize farming. However, such strategies can stress territorial fish by increasing aggression, thus harming the fish welfare and productive performance. Here, we tested the effect of long-term...

Chakravarty, S., Donoghue, J., Waite, A. S. et al. 2023. Closed-loop control of anesthetic state in nonhuman primates. PNAS Nexus 2(10), 293.

Research in human volunteers and surgical patients has shown that unconsciousness under general anesthesia can be reliably tracked using real-time electroencephalogram processing. Hence, a closed-loop anesthesia delivery (CLAD) system that maintains precisely specified levels of...

Costa, R. S., Ciotti-McClallen, M., Tilley, R. et al. 2023. Intramuscular alfaxalone with or without buprenorphine or hydromorphone provides sedation with minimal adverse effects in healthy rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in a randomized blinded controlled trial. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 261(2), 223–228.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effects of alfaxalone administered IM with or without buprenorphine or hydromorphone in healthy rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus). ANIMALS 24 male rabbits undergoing elective orchiectomy between August 21, 2021, and November 6, 2021...

Webb, J. K., Keller, K. A., Chinnadurai, S. K. et al. 2023. Use of alfaxalone in bearded dragons (Pogona vitticeps): Optimizing pharmacodynamics and evaluating cardiogenic effects via echocardiography. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 261(1), 126–131.

OBJECTIVE Bearded dragons (Pogona vitticeps), a popular zoological companion species, frequently require sedation for procedures. A novel formulation of alfaxalone with preservatives was FDA approved for 28-day use after the vial is breached. Research has...

Buckmaster, C. L., Levesque, D., LaFollette, M. et al. 2022. Five hot topics in refinement of nonhuman primate neuroscience research. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 10(1) (January/February), 24-26.

Members of the North American 3Rs Collaborative (NA3RsC) refinement initiative have chosen to summarize developments in five hot topics of interest: 1. Tips for welfare-friendly transport, chairing, and restraint; 2. Guidance on refining food and...

Bethell, E. J., Khan, W., Hussain, A. 2022. A deep transfer learning model for head pose estimation in rhesus macaques during cognitive tasks: Towards a nonrestraint noninvasive 3Rs approach. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 255, 105708.

Head orientation is a measure of attention used in behavioral psychological research with non-human primates. It is used across a broad range of disciplines and settings, from the field to the laboratory. Field methods are...

Jacob, G., Katti, H., Cherian, T. et al. 2021. A naturalistic environment to study visual cognition in unrestrained monkeys. eLife 10, e63816.

Macaque monkeys are widely used to study vision. In the traditional approach, monkeys are brought into a lab to perform visual tasks while they are restrained to obtain stable eye tracking and neural recordings. Here...

Prentice, P. M., Houslay, T. M., Wilson, A. J. 2022. Exploiting animal personality to reduce chronic stress in captive fish populations. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 1046205.

Chronic stress is a major source of welfare problems in many captive populations, including fishes. While we have long known that chronic stress effects arise from maladaptive expression of acute stress response pathways, predicting where...

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”)...

Torgerson-White, L., Sánchez-Suárez, W. 2022. Looking beyond the shoal: Fish welfare as an individual attribute. Animals 12(19), 2592.

Welfare is an individual attribute. In general, providing captive nonhuman animals with conditions conducive to good welfare is an idea more easily applied when dealing with few individuals. However, this becomes much harder—if not impossible—under...

Álvarez, E. R., Solé, L. V., Mateo, A. G. de C. 2022. Comparison of subcutaneous sedation with alfaxalone or alfaxalone-midazolam in pet guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) of three different age groups. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 260(9), 1024–1030.

OBJECTIVE To compare the cardiorespiratory effects, quality and duration of sedation of 2 subcutaneous sedation protocols for noninvasive procedures in guinea pigs (GPs). ANIMALS 24 pet GPs (15 females, 9 males) of 3 different age...

Robinson, L. M., Waran, N. K., Handel, I. et al. 2021. Happiness, welfare, and personality in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 236, 105268.

When we treat an animal’s welfare as an individual experience, we should consider the possibility that it may be associated with individual differences in personality. We tested for such associations in 44 socially housed rhesus...

Houser, L. A., Ramsey, C., de Carvalho, F. M. et al. 2021. Improved training and semen collection outcomes using the closed box chair for macaques. Animals 11(8), 2384.

Collaborative semen collection in monkeys is a valuable tool in research, animal collection management, and conservation efforts. To obtain samples, monkeys are often restrained in open restraint chairs (ORC) with the “pole and collar” technique...

Pomerantz, O., Capitanio, J. P. 2021. Temperament predicts the quality of social interactions in captive female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Animals 11(8), 2452.

Previous reports suggest that female macaques with greater similarity in emotionality and nervous temperament, as evaluated in a well-established BioBehavioral Assessment (BBA) at the California National Primate Research Center, were more likely to form successful...

Camargo-dos-Santos, B., Carlos, C. L., Favero-Neto, J. et al. 2021. Welfare in Nile tilapia production: Dorsal fin erection as a visual indicator for insensibility. Animals 11(10), 3007.

In aquaculture, to ensure animal welfare in pre-slaughter and slaughter stages, it is fundamental that fish are insensible. A method for evaluating fish insensibility is based on visual sensibility indicators (VSI) assessment (i.e., self-initiated behavior...

Falendysz, E. A., Calhoun, D. M., Smith, C. A. et al. 2020. Outside the box: Working with wildlife in biocontainment. ILAR Journal 61(1), 72-85.

Research with captive wildlife in Animal Biosafety Level 2 (ABSL2) and 3 (ABSL3) facilities is becoming increasingly necessary as emerging and re-emerging diseases involving wildlife have increasing impacts on human, animal, and environmental health. Utilizing...

Botman, J., Hontoir, F., Gustin, P. et al. 2020. Postanaesthetic effects of ketamine–midazolam and ketamine–medetomidine on gastrointestinal transit time in rabbits anaesthetised with isoflurane. Veterinary Record 186(8), 249.

Gastrointestinal stasis is a common perianaesthetic complication in rabbits. The objective of this study was to assess the impact on gastrointestinal transit time of ketamine–midazolam (KMZ) versus ketamine–medetomidine (later antagonised by atipamezole) (KMT-A) in rabbits...

Zemanova, M. A. 2020. Towards more compassionate wildlife research through the 3Rs principles: Moving from invasive to noninvasive methods. Wildlife Biology 2020(1), no page numbers.

Research in ecology and wildlife biology remains crucial for increasing our knowledge and improving species management and conservation in the midst of the current biodiversity crisis. However, obtaining information on population status often involves invasive...

Składanowska-Baryza, J., Ludwiczak, A., Pruszyńska-Oszmałek, E. et al. 2020. Effect of two different stunning methods on the quality traits of rabbit meat. Animals 10(4), 700.

The aim of the study was to assess the effect of two different stunning methods on the level of blood stress indicators (cortisol, insulin, glucose) and rabbit meat quality. The experiment was conducted on crossbreds...

Rasys, A. M., Divers, S. J., Lauderdale, J. D. et al. 2020. A systematic study of injectable anesthetic agents in the brown anole lizard (Anolis sagrei). Laboratory Animals 54(3), 281–292.

Anolis lizards have served as important research models in fields ranging from evolution and ecology to physiology and biomechanics. However, anoles are also emerging as important models for studies of embryo development and tissue regeneration...

Shomer, N. H., Allen-Worthington, K. H., Hickman, D. L. et al. 2020. Review of rodent euthanasia methods. JAALAS 59(3), 242–253.

The optimal choice of euthanasia method for laboratory rodents depends on a number of factors, including the scientific goals of the study, the need to minimize animal pain and/or distress, applicable guidelines and laws, the...