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. 
Graham, C., von Keyserlingk, M. A. G., Franks, B. 2018. Zebrafish welfare: Natural history, social motivation and behaviour. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 200, 13-22.

Zebrafish are now one of the most used animal model species in scientific research worldwide. Our current knowledge of wild zebrafish is limited to an estimated range of their natural habitats and their tendencies to...

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...

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...

Stachowicz, J., Gygax, L., Hillmann, E. et al. 2018. Dairy goats use outdoor runs of high quality more regardless of the quality of indoor housing. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 208, 22-30.

For dairy goats in loose housing, access to an outdoor run has potential welfare benefits as it provides additional space, enables spatial separation and may offer items representing behavioural enrichment for the goats (e.g. brush...

Edwards, G. L., Michael, J. A., Parks., A. 2018. Agricultural animals as biomedical models: Occupational health and safety considerations. ILAR Journal 59(2), 161-167.

The use of agricultural animals in biomedical research is increasing. Their overall size and metabolic rate, organ size, longer gestation period, and other physiological similarities make them good candidates for animal models of human disease...

Benedict, D., Megrath, B. 2018. Upgrades to nonhuman primate tethered infusion system. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 6(3) (September), 62-64.

Continuous tethered infusions in any animal model pose a unique set of problems. These problems are amplified when nonhuman primates are the model. A high tolerance to the tether system by an animal model is...

Darbyshire, A. K., Salleng, K., Chen,P. 2018. The shocking lives of electric eels. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 6(1) (March), 14-18.

Electric eels (Electrophorus electricus) are a unique species used for behavioral research in the Vanderbilt Animal Care and Use Program. Few resources are available to describe the housing and handling of this species in captivity...

Ekesbo, I., Gunnarsson, S. 2018. Farm Animal Behaviour: Characteristics for Assessment and Welfare (2nd ed). CABI, Wallingford, UK.

Completely updated and revised, and with a new author team, this second edition of Farm Animal Behaviour continues to provide essential information on normal and stereotypic behaviors in a wide variety of farm animals to...

Maia, C. M., Volpato, G. L. 2017. Preference index supported by motivation tests in Nile tilapia. PLOS ONE 12(4), e0175821.

The identification of animal preferences is assumed to provide better rearing environments for the animals in question. Preference tests focus on the frequency of approaches or the time an animal spends in proximity to each...

Tsang, B., Zahid, H., Ansari, R. et al. 2017. Breeding zebrafish: A review of different methods and a discussion on standardization. Zebrafish 14(6), 561-573.

In recent years, a rapidly increasing number of scientific papers have been published that utilize zebrafish (Danio rerio) as an alternative model organism in the study of a wide range of biological phenomena from cancer...

Nordquist, R., van der Staay, F., van Eerdenburg, F. et al. 2017. Mutilating procedures, management practices, and housing conditions that may affect the welfare of farm animals: Implications for welfare research. Animals 7(2), 12.

A number of mutilating procedures, such as dehorning in cattle and goats and beak trimming in laying hens, are common in farm animal husbandry systems in an attempt to prevent or solve problems, such as...

Sutherland, M. A., Lowe, G. L., Watson, T. J. et al. 2017. Dairy goats prefer to use different flooring types to perform different behaviours. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 197, 24-31.

Flooring is an important component of indoor housing systems for livestock as it can impact animal hygiene and welfare. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the lying and elimination preferences of goats...

Stevens, C. H., Croft, D. P., Paull, G. C. et al. 2017. Stress and welfare in ornamental fishes: What can be learned from aquaculture? Journal of Fish Biology 91(2), 409-428.

The ornamental fish trade is estimated to handle up to 1.5 billion fishes. Transportation and handling of fishes imposes a range of stressors that can result in mortality at rates of up to 73%. Given...

Lidster, K., Readman, G. D., Prescott, M. J. et al. 2017. International survey on the use and welfare of zebrafish Danio rerio in research. Journal of Fish Biology 90(5), 1891-1905.

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...

Costa, D. C., Mattioli, C. C., Silva, W. S. et al. 2017. The effect of environmental colour on the growth, metabolism, physiology and skin pigmentation of the carnivorous freshwater catfish Lophiosilurus alexandri. Journal of Fish Biology 90(3), 922-935.

The growth, physiology and skin pigmentation of pacamã Lophiosilurus alexandri juveniles were evaluated in an experiment using different tank colours (white, yellow, green, blue, brown and black) over an 80-day period. The tank colours did...

Cavallaro, J., Stevens Jr., R. W., Wilson, B. et al. 2017. Social housing pig tail macaques in repurposed chimpanzee enclosures. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 5(2) (June), 60-61.

As chimpanzees are retired from research, enclosures such as the Primadomes™ become available for repurposing for other monkey species. However, modifications are necessary to meet specific monkey species needs, and considerations for animal handling and...

Gaffney, L. P., Franks, B., Weary, D. M. et al. 2016. Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) prefer and are less aggressive in darker environments. PLOS ONE 11(3), e0151325.

Fish are capable of excellent vision and can be profoundly influenced by the visual properties of their environment. Ambient colours have been found to affect growth, survival, aggression and reproduction, but the effect of background...

Peeters, B. W. M. M. , Moeskops, M., Veenvliet, A. R. J. 2016. Color preference in Danio rerio: Effects of age and anxiolytic treatments. Zebrafish 13(4), 330-334.

Zebrafish are increasingly used in neurobiological and behavioral studies. Possible stimuli to manipulate zebrafish behavior are being investigated. The presentation of colors appears to be one of the most used approaches, but there is much...

Goodwin, N., Westall, L., Karp, N. A. et al. 2016. Evaluating and optimizing fish health and welfare during experimental procedures. Zebrafish 13(S1), S127-S131.

Many facilities house fish in separate static containers post-procedure, for example, while awaiting genotyping results. This ensures fish can be easily identified, but it does not allow for provision of continuous filtered water or diet...

O'Keefe, S. 2016. Non-human primate housing facility at Newcastle University. Animal Technology and Welfare 15(2), 131-132.

Monkeys first arrived in the Comparative Biology Centre (CBC) at Newcastle University in 2000. They were housed in three small separate units consisting of steel and wooden cages. In 2011 a decision was made to...

Holmes, A. M., Emmans, C. J., Jones, N. et al. 2016. Impact of tank background on the welfare of the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis (Daudin). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 185, 131-136.

The captive environment of a laboratory animal can profoundly influence its welfare and the scientific validity of research produced. The African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) is a common model organism, however current husbandry guidelines lack...

Greenway, E., Jones, K. S., Cooke, G. M. 2016. Environmental enrichment in captive juvenile thornback rays, Raja clavata (Linnaeus 1758). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 182, 86-93.

There are few studies investigating captive conditions for commonly kept public aquaria species. Here the thornback ray (Raja clavata) was used to determine preferred captive conditions via choice tests and behavioural observations. Substrate type, substrate...

Prior, H., Bottomly, A., Champéroux, P. et al. 2016. Social housing of non-rodents during cardiovascular recordings in safety pharmacology and toxicology studies. Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods 81, 75-87.

Introduction: The Safety Pharmacology Society (SPS) and National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) conducted a survey and workshop in 2015 to define current industry practices relating to housing...

Slater, H., Milne, A. E., Wilson, B. et al. 2016. Individually customisable non-invasive head immobilisation system for non-human primates with an option for voluntary engagement. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 269, 46-60.

Background: Head immobilisation is often necessary for neuroscientific procedures. A number of Non-invasive Head Immobilisation Systems (NHIS) for monkeys are available, but the need remains for a feasible integrated system combining a broad range of...