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. 
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...

Digranes, N., Haga, H. A., Nordgreen, J. 2023. High and hyper: Fentanyl induces psychomotor side-effects in healthy pigs. Animals 13(10), 1671.

Analgesic effects of fentanyl have been investigated using behavior. The behavioral effects of fentanyl and possible serotonergic influence are largely unknown. We therefore investigated behavioral effects of fentanyl, with or without the serotonin antagonist ketanserin...

Kaiser, S., Korte, A., Wistuba, J. et al. 2023. Effects of castration and sterilization on baseline and response levels of cortisol—A case study in male guinea pigs. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 1093157.

An uncontrolled reproduction of animals in human hands should be avoided. To meet this goal, animals are widely castrated, i.e., the gonads are completely removed. Since the gonads are the most important source of sex...

Kannan, G., Batchu, P., Naldurtiker, A. et al. 2023. Habituation to livestock trailer and its influence on stress responses during transportation in goats. Animals 13(7), 1191.

This experiment was conducted to determine the effects of habituation to livestock trailers on stress responses in goats transported for long periods. Intact male Spanish goats (12-month old; BW = 31.6 ± 0.34 kg; N...

Miller, R., Grott, A., Patzkéwitsch, D. et al. 2023. Behavior of piglets in an observation arena before and after castration with local anesthesia. Animals 13(3), 529.

Surgical castration of piglets is generally recognized as a painful procedure, but there is currently no gold standard for the assessment of pain behavior in piglets. However, pain assessment is essential for evaluating the effectiveness...

Prior, S., Blackie, N., Fishwick, J. et al. 2023. Randomised control trial investigating the efficacy of meloxicam and sodium salicylate non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for calf cautery disbudding. Animals 13(11), 1768.

Disbudding calves using hot iron cautery is a routine management procedure to destroy the germinal cells around the horn bud in calves. It is recommended that NSAIDs are used in conjunction with local anaesthesia to...

Robles, I., Luna, S. P. L., Trindade, P. H. E. et al. 2023. Validation of the Unesp-Botucatu pig composite acute pain scale (UPAPS) in piglets undergoing castration. PLOS ONE 18(4), e0284218.

To accurately assess pain and support broadly-based analgesic protocols to mitigate swine pain, it is imperative to develop and validate a species-specific pain scale. The objective of this study was to investigate the clinical validity...

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...

Bradley, H. S., Craig, M. D., Tomlinson, S. et al. 2023. Ecological considerations when designing mitigation translocations: An Australian reptile case study. Animals 13(16), 2594.

Translocation science has made considerable progress over the last two decades; however, reptile translocations still frequently fail around the world. Major knowledge gaps surround the basic ecology of reptile species, including basic factors such as...

Buckham-Sporer, K., Earley, B., Marti, S. 2023. Current knowledge on the transportation by road of cattle, including unweaned calves. Animals 13(21), 3393.

Transport conditions have the potential to alter the physiological responses of animals to the psychological or physical stress of transport. Transportation may introduce multiple physical and psychological stressors to unweaned calves and adult cattle, including...

Costa, G. L., Spadola, F., Di Pietro, S. et al. 2023. Tramadol vs. Lidocaine administered intraperitoneally and in incisional lines for the intraoperative and postoperative pain management of romifidine-telazol-anesthetized swine undergoing umbilical hernia repair. Animals 13(18), 2905.

The aim of the study was to compare the analgesic efficacy of tramadol and lidocaine for local anesthesia during umbilical hernia repair in swine. The study was performed on 66 large white crossbred swine. The...

D’Alessio, R. M., McAloon, C. G., Boyle, L. A. et al. 2023. Comparison between two scoring methods to assess tail damage of docked pig carcasses during postmortem inspection in Ireland. Veterinary Record Open 10(2), e66.

Background Tail inspection in the abattoir is a tool to help determine the welfare status of pigs. However, methodologies vary widely. Moreover, meat inspection is moving from palpation and incision towards visual-only (VIS) examination. This...

Du Plooy, K. J., Swan, G. E., Myburgh, J. G. et al. 2023. Electroencephalogram (EEG) assessment of brain activity before and after electrical stunning in the Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus). Scientific Reports 13(1), 20250.

Electrical stunning is used to capture crocodiles to perform routine management procedures. It is essential from a welfare point that electrical stunning must cause unconsciousness in animals. However, there is no information of whether or...

Kongara, K., Singh, P., Venkatachalam, D. et al. 2023. Pain assessment in goat kids: Focus on disbudding. Animals 13(24), 3814.

Farm animals are routinely subjected to painful husbandry procedures for various purposes. Goat kids are disbudded to improve goat welfare and to ensure safety of other livestock, farm personnel, attending veterinarians and for various other...

Trujanovic, R., Rohrbach, H. 2023. Ultrasound-guided block of the sciatic and the femoral nerves in rabbits—A descriptive anatomical study. Animals 13(14), 2393.

The rabbit is a popular animal model for human biomechanical research involving surgery on the hind limb. Mortality is higher in rabbits when undergoing general anesthesia compared to dogs and cats. Moreover, due to their...

Wang, C., Yang, C., Zeng, Y. et al. 2023. GnRH-immunocastration: An alternative method for male animal surgical castration. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.
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...

Alvarez, L., Terrazas, A., Rojas, S. et al. 2023. Cortisol and pain-related behavior in hot-iron disbudded goat kids sedated with xylazine and locally infiltrated with lidocaine. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 63, 42–47.

Disbudding induces intense pain-related behavioral and physiological responses in goat kids. Using only regional anesthesia may not be effective in ameliorating these responses. We determined the effect of xylazine-sedation with or without regional infiltration of...

Benato, L., Murrell, J., Rooney, N. 2023. Determining a cut-off point for intervention analgesia in rabbits using the Bristol Rabbit Pain Scale. Veterinary Record 193(5), e2995.

Background: The objective of this study was to determine the threshold of the Bristol Rabbit Pain Scale (BRPS) indicating the need for intervention analgesia. Methods: Fourteen members of veterinary staff were recruited to rate rabbits...

Crone, C., Caldara, F. R., Martins, R. et al. 2023. Environmental enrichment for pig welfare during transport. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 26(3), 393–403.

This study aimed to assess the effects of environmental enrichment for pigs during transportation in different phases of their productive cycle. Two trials were conducted, the first during transportation of pigs from the piglet production...

Kim, J., Lee, J., Kang, K. et al. 2023. Effects of sling belt provision on behaviour, skin lesions, and salivary cortisol level in growing pigs after transport and regrouping. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 269, 106116.

The provision of enrichment material has been widely recommended to mitigate stress and minimise aggressive behaviour as well as enhance the welfare of pigs after transport and regrouping. In this study, we assessed the effects...

Martin-Flores, M., Nugen, S. A., Boesch, J. M. et al. 2023. Low-dose epidural anesthesia decreases the use of intraoperative systemic analgesics in goats undergoing lower urinary tract surgery. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 261(8), 1147–1151.

OBJECTIVE To test whether the use of low-dose epidural anesthesia (EA) in goats undergoing lower urinary tract surgery reduces the requirements of perioperative analgesics, contributes to intraoperative hypotension, and improves postoperative comfort during the first...

Pierdon, M. K., Berdahl, S. E. 2023. Effect of topical spray containing lidocaine on piglet behaviour post castration. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 26(2), 195–204.

Previous studies examining the impact of topical lidocaine spray on postcastration pain behavior in piglets used scan sampling for the collection of behavior data. This methodology led to inconclusive results on the efficacy of topical...

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...