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. 
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...

Spitzer, H. B., Meagher, R. K., Proudfoot, K. L. 2022. The impact of providing hiding spaces to farmed animals: A scoping review. PLOS ONE 17(11), e0277665.

Many wild animals perform hiding behaviours for a variety of reasons, such as evading predators or other conspecifics. Unlike their wild counterparts, farmed animals often live in relatively barren environments without the opportunity to hide...

Kulyar, M. F.-A., Ashfaq, K., Aqib, A. I. et al. 2022. Enhanced healing activity of manuka honey and nitrofurazone composite in full-thickness burn wounds in the rabbit model. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 875629.

Burns cause many significant changes in metabolism and inflammatory reactions, leading to poor regeneration in animals and humans. A list of medicines to treat burns is available in the market. But due to the high...

Schwarzer, A., Erhard, M., Schmidt, P. et al. 2022. Effects of stocking rate and environmental enrichment on the ontogeny of pecking behavior of laying hen pullets confined in aviary compartments during the first 4 weeks of life. Animals 12(19), 2639.

The objective of this study was to describe the ontogeny of the severe feather pecking (SFP), gentle feather pecking (GFP), aggressive pecking (AP), and enrichment pecking (EP) of non-beak-trimmed Lohmann Brown (LB)-pullets during the first...

Xu, D., Shu, G., Liu, Y. et al. 2022. Farm animal enrichments improve the welfare of layer chicks and pullets: A comprehensive review. Animals 12(19), 2610.

Currently, cage housing is regarded as a global mainstream production system for laying hens. However, limited living space and confinement of birds in cages cause welfare and health problems, such as feather pecking, osteoporosis, obesity...

Riedel, A., Rieke, L., Kemper, N. et al. 2022. A place to be? Use of winter gardens with and without automatic enrichment devices by laying hens. Applied Sciences 12(7), 3650.

Since the abolition of beak trimming in laying hens in Germany, the importance of adequate enrichment material to help reduce feather pecking and cannibalism has grown. Here we tested an automatic enrichment device dosing grain...

Stracke, J., Volkmann, N., May, F. et al. 2021. Walking on tiptoes: Digital pads deserve increased attention when scoring footpad dermatitis as an animal welfare indicator in turkeys. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 7, 613516.

Animal welfare is one of the most challenging issues in modern farm animal husbandry. Animal welfare indicators can be used to monitor welfare on farms or at slaughterhouses, with footpad dermatitis (FPD) being one of...

Petek, M.,Çavuşoğlu, E. 2021. Welfare assessment of two free-range laying hen flocks in Turkey. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 24(1), 56-63.

This study aimed to determine the prevalence of keel bone deviations and feather damage of laying hens in two different free-range housing systems under commercial conditions. Both of the free-range systems had an indoor barn...

Lambert, K. 2021. DIY: Ice cream cone spiced foraging cups. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 9(1) (January/February), 36.

This DIY snack is great for NHPs and can be customized in a variety of ways.

Lambert, K. 2021. DIY: Ice produce blocks. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 9(2) (March/April), 41.

This great cool-down snack is ideal for group or singly housed swine or nonhuman primates (particularly in larger pen-style housing). This item can be customized for canines as well by modifying the liquid used and/or...

Barretta, L. A., Maloney, S. K., Blachea, D. 2021. Pekin ducks are motivated to access their nest site and exhibit a stress-induced hyperthermia when unable to do so. Animal 15(1), 100067.

The origins of floor-laying in ducks could be low motivation for a nest, or stress related to difficulties with accessing a nest (e.g. competition). Using a behavioural demand test, we investigated if increasing the work...

Stevens, A., Doneley, R., Cogny, A. et al. 2021. The effects of environmental enrichment on the behaviour of cockatiels (Nymphicus hollandicus) in aviaries. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 235, 105154.

Most research to enrich the environment of psittacines in captivity has focused on foraging. Little is known about the importance of bathing substrates for enrichment of their environment, despite this being a natural behaviour that...

Tahamtani, F. M., Herskin, M. S., Foldager, L. et al. 2021. Assessment of mobility and pain in broiler chickens with identifiable gait defects. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 234, 105183.

Gait defects, assessed as gait score (GS), is a common welfare problem in broiler chicken production. The aim of this study was to examine whether birds with GS2 experience pain and poor locomotor ability compared...

LaDue, C. A., Schulte, B. A. 2021. Pheromonal enrichment in the zoo: An empirical approach with Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 235, 105228.

The use of odors is a popular form of sensory enrichment, yet few studies have investigated the longer lasting effects of biologically relevant chemical signals like pheromones. Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) are unique because they...

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...

Fernandez, E. J., Upchurch, B., Hawkes, N. C. 2021. Public feeding interactions as enrichment for three zoo-housed elephants. Animals 11(6), 1689.

The past few decades have seen increased interest in studies examining the welfare of elephants and animal–visitor interactions. One understudied area for both pursuits is the impact of public feeding interactions. Our study examined the...

Arre, A. M., Horschler, D. J. 2021. Swimming and diving as social play in juvenile rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Behaviour 158(6), 529-546.

Although play is ubiquitous throughout the animal kingdom, and in primates especially, the ultimate explanations and proximate mechanisms of play are not well understood. Previous research proposes that primate play may be important for the...

Malchow, J., Schrader, L. 2021. Effects of an elevated platform on welfare aspects in male conventional broilers and dual-purpose chickens. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 8, 660602.

To avoid killing day-old male chicks, one possibility is to keep dual-purpose chicken strains. Here, the hens were kept for egg production, and the roosters were kept for meat production. Both sexes had moderate performances...

Lambert, K. 2021. DIY: Acacia gum sealed paper straws. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 9(3) (May/June), 37.

This DIY snack is great for NHP and can be customized in a variety of ways.

Lambert, K. 2021. DIY: Dehydrated watermelon training chips. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 9(4) (July/August), 48.

This simple DIY training treat is great for NHP, swine, rabbits, rodents, and dogs. Note that dehydrated watermelon may resemble muscle tissue!

Huber, N., Mahr, K., Tóth, Z. et al. 2021. The stressed bird in the hand: Influence of sampling design on the physiological stress response in a free-living songbird. Physiology & Behavior 238, 113488.

Despite the widely used application of standardized capture-handling protocols to collect blood and assess the physiological stress response, the actual sampling design (e.g., timing and the number of blood samples) often differs between studies, and...

Kittelsen, K. E., Gretarsson, P., Jensen, P. et al. 2021. Keel bone fractures are more prevalent in White Leghorn hens than in Red Jungle fowl hens—A pilot study. PLOS ONE 16(7), e0255234.

Fractures and deviations to the keel bone are common in commercial laying hens, with reported variations in occurrence across strains and breeds. The aetiology is not fully understood, however, modern genetics and selection for efficient...

Albanese, V., Kuan, M., Accorsi, P.A. et al. 2021. Evaluation of an enrichment programme for a colony of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) in a rescue centre. Primates 62(4), 585-593.

Long-tailed macaques are highly social primates that are commonly used in biomedical research as animal models. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of different kinds of enrichment on the behaviour and...

Norman, K. I., Weeks, C. A., Tarlton, J. F. 2021. Rearing experience with ramps improves specific learning and behaviour and welfare on a commercial laying farm. Scientific Reports 11(1), 8860.

To access resources in commercial laying houses hens must move between levels with agility to avoid injury. This study considered whether providing ramps during rear improved the ability of birds to transition between levels. Twelve...

Campbell, D. L. M., Whitten, J. M., Slater, E. et al. 2021. Rearing enrichments differentially modified hen personality traits and reduced prediction of range use. Animal Behaviour 179, 97-109.

Domestic fowl have been demonstrated to individually differ in personality, dictating reactions to environmental stimuli. Free-range chickens, Gallus gallus domesticus, show individual range use variation, which may be related to personality differences. Enrichment can also...