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. 
Cabana, F., Maguire, R., Hsu, C-D. et al. 2018. Identification of possible nutritional and stress risk factors in the development of marmoset wasting syndrome. Zoo Biology 37(2), 98–106.

Marmoset wasting syndrome (MWS) describes a series of symptoms in callitrichids that lead to general weakness and a failure to thrive in captive conditions such as zoological institutions. Though the cause of MWS has not...

Hawkins, P., McBride, A., Paiba, G. et al. 2018. Report of the 2017 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent and Rabbit Welfare Group meeting. Animal Technology and Welfare 17(2), 75-83. [Meeting Report]

The RSPCA/UFAW Rodent (and now Rabbit) Welfare Group held a one-day meeting on 14 November 2017 in Weybridge, UK. The first session addressed meeting animals' needs and aiming for a 'good life', with the needs...

Pearson, K., Gant, J. 2018. Improving rabbit enrichment: Developing a rolling enrichment plan. Animal Technology and Welfare 17(2), 121-123.

A three-week enrichment preference study trialling different substrates, food and pen structures was carried out in three, group-housed female New Zealand White Rabbits (NZW). Preference results: structural - rabbits spent the most time with a...

Gottlieb, D. H., Del Rosso, L, Sheikhi, F. et al. 2018. Personality, environmental stressors, and diarrhea in Rhesus macaques: An interactionist perspective. American Journal of Primatology 80(12), e22908.

Previous research has repeatedly shown both personality and psychological stress to predict gastrointestinal disorders and chronic diarrhea in humans. The goal of the present research was to evaluate the role of personality, as well as...

Linden, J.B., Capitanio, J.P., McCowan, B. et al. 2018. Coping style and cortisol levels in infancy predict hair cortisol following new group formation in captive rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). American Journal of Primatology 80(12), e22938.

Social instability in primate groups has been used as a model to understand how social stress affects human populations. While it is well established that individual cercopithecines have different temperaments or personalities, little is known...

Brown, T. A., Lutz, C. K., 2018. An assessment of porches as enrichment for singly housed cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis). American Journal of Primatology 80(S1), 18 (40th Meeting of the American Society of Primatologists Scientific Program, Abstract #21).

Effective environmental enrichment encourages usage, promotes species‐typical behaviors, and/or decreases abnormal behaviors. Porches are small cages that attach to the primary cage of an animal to provide additional space and a better view of the...

Perlman, J. E., Martin, A. L., Bloomsmith, M. A., 2018. Increases in feeding and destructible enrichment distribution in caged rhesus macaques (Macaques mulatta) provide some behavioral benefits. American Journal of Primatology 80(S1), 19 (40th Meeting of the American Society of Primatologists Scientific Program, Abstract #24).

It is important to evaluate the effectiveness of environmental enrichment in meeting behavioral goals (e.g., decreasing abnormal behavior) and in making the best use of limited facility resources (e.g., money, personnel time). One/zero behavioral data...

Woelffer, S., Ace, L., Sullivan, J. et al., 2018. Enhanced physical environment in single-housed macaques: A long-term usage profile of cage extensions. American Journal of Primatology 80(S1), 19-20 (40th Meeting of the American Society of Primatologists Scientific Program, Abstract #25).

Social housing is always preferred in the research environment; however, single housing is sometimes necessitated by scientific objectives or social incompatibility. In these cases, other environmental enhancements are developed to provide indirect social interactions. We...

Yoshimoto, T., Takahashi, E., Yamashita, S. et al. 2018. Larger cages with housing unit environment enrichment improve the welfare of marmosets. Experimental Animals 67(1), 31-39.

The provision of adequate space for laboratory animals is essential not only for good welfare but accurate studies. For example, housing conditions for primates used in biomedical research may negatively affect welfare and thus the...

Peveler, J. L., Hickman, D. L. 2018. Effects of music enrichment on individually housed male New Zealand white rabbits. JAALAS 57(6), 695–697.

The beneficial effect of music has been demonstrated in many species. Although commercially available music CDs intended for use with rabbits are available, these enrichments have not been critically evaluated to determine whether they reduce...

Perdue, B. M., Beran, M. J., Washburn, D. A. 2018. A computerized testing system for primates: Cognition, welfare, and the Rumbaughx. Behavioural Processes 156, 37-50.

Innovations in apparatus technology come about for a variety of reasons such as the need to use the same methodology with various species, the opportunity to present dynamic and carefully controlled stimuli, the goal of...

Heyworth, C., Olivo, D. 2018. Environmental and psychological enrichment for NHPs reimagined and repurposed. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 5(4) (December), 39-43.

This article describes creative enrichment ideas for nonhuman primates, including celery stalks embedded with seeds; paper rolled into tubes, braided and filled with fruit and seeds; pineapple crowns loaded with treats; dry spaghetti noodles coated...

Coursodon, P., Cox, L., Largent-Milnes, T. M. et al. 2018. Enhanced environmental enrichment strategies for retired rhesus macaques. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 6(2) (June), 41-43.

One challenge in providing enrichment to NHP arises following completion of their assigned studies (retired) when there tends to be a sudden decrease in provision of daily human interaction and overall stimulation that results from...

Unakafov, A. M., Möller, S., Kagan, I. et al. 2018. Using imaging photoplethysmography for heart rate estimation in non-human primates. PLOS ONE 13(8), e0202581.

For humans and for non-human primates heart rate is a reliable indicator of an individual’s current physiological state, with applications ranging from health checks to experimental studies of cognitive and emotional state. In humans, changes...

Hopper, L. M., Cronin, K. A., Ross, S. R. 2018. A multi-institutional assessment of a short-form personality questionnaire for use with macaques. Zoo Biology 37(5), 281-289

There are two commonly used methods for calculating primates’ personality dimensions, behavioral assessments and surveys, which can be used separately or in conjunction. However, these methods have limitations. Behavioral assessments, such as the novel object...

Witham, C. L. 2018. Automated face recognition of rhesus macaques. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 300, 157-165.

Background: Rhesus macaques are widely used in biomedical research. Automated behavior monitoring can be useful in various fields (including neuroscience), as well as having applications to animal welfare but current technology lags behind that developed...

Cronin, K. A., Bethell, E. J., Jacobson, S. L. et al. 2018. Evaluating mood changes in response to anthropogenic noise with a response-slowing task in three species of zoo-housed primates. Animal Behavior and Cognition 5(2), 209–221.

In the zoo environment, anthropogenic noise is common as sound levels fluctuate due to visitors, construction, habitat design, and special events. In this study, changes in the mood of three species of zoo-housed primates in...

Sommerville, R., Ruiz, R., Averós, X. 2017. A meta-analysis on the effects of the housing environment on the behaviour, mortality, and performance of growing rabbits. Animal Welfare 26(2), 223-238.

Although the number of rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) produced in Europe is important, they are under-represented in welfare research. Studies on the effects of housing conditions have focused on performance and mortality. We conducted a meta-analysis...

Semrau, A., Gerold, S., Frick, J.S. et al. 2017. Non-invasive detection and successful treatment of a Helicobacter pylori infection in a captive rhesus macaque. Laboratory Animals 51(2), 208-211.

Gastritis is a commonly diagnosed condition in non-human primates used in biomedical research. As in humans, Helicobacter pylori infection may cause gastritis. The following report presents a method of non-invasive detection and a successful treatment...

Cannon, T. 2017. Tailored enrichment strategies and stereotypic behaviour in captive individually-housed macaques (Macaca spp.). Canopy 17(2), 13-16.

In this study, I combine both physiological and behavioural measures of well-being to comprehensively assess the unique needs of individually-housed captive macaques (Macaca spp.) at OPR Coastal Primate Sanctuary in Longview, WA, with the aim...

Palmer, S. 2017. Rescue-Enrich-Release: The environmental enrichment program for three species of captive primates at Colobus. Canopy 17(2), 27-30.

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...

Hawkins, P., McNeilly, A., Watson, J. et al. 2017. Report of the 2016 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent and Rabbit Welfare Group meeting. Animal Technology and Welfare 16(2), 77-86.

The RSPCA/UFAW Rodent (and now Rabbit) Welfare Group held a one-day meeting on 1 November 2016 at the University of Edinburgh and was attended by 70 delegates. Presentation topics included refinements in blood sampling rodents...

Carlson, A., Allen, C., Skoumbourdis, E. et al. 2017. Cooked food for non-human primates: A discussion by the Laboratory Animal Refinement & Enrichment Forum. Animal Technology and Welfare 16(2), 124-126.

"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...

Devenport, M., Levent, S., Storer, R. 2017. Rabbits housed in pens: Do they have an enrichment preference? Animal Technology and Welfare 16(2), 130-132.

Since the antibody production facility at Envigo RMS opened in 2015 we have been offering our rabbits a variety of disposable and non-disposable enrichment in a floor pen arrangement. There is a perception that our...

Holmes, J., Waters, D., Maisonave, I. et al. 2017. Social interaction for non-sibling pregnant New Zealand white rabbits on reproductive toxicology. Animal Technology and Welfare 16(2), 139-141.

Rabbits are gregarious animals that live in social groups in the wild so individually housing our animals, while meeting the present scientific objectives, restricts their natural social behaviour. How to meet the social needs of...