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. 
Holley, A., Drayer, J., Rammling, M. et al. 2014. A simplified method to identify and reduce flooded rodent caging. Charles River, Orlando, FL.

The number of flooded cages per cage change cycle (14 days) was tracked and it was identified that leaks and flooding often times occurred shortly after cage changing. To reduce the occurrence of flooded caging...

Escribano, B., Quero, I., Feijóo, M. et al. 2014. Role of noise and music as anxiety modulators: Relationship with ovarian hormones in the rat. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 152, 73-82.

This work aims to verify the role of noise and music as anxiety modulators and their relationship with ovarian hormones. For this purpose, female Wistar rats were used and treated, forming different experimental groups, with...

Hori, M., Yamada, K., Ohnishi, J. et al. 2014. Tickling during adolescence alters fear-related and cognitive behaviors in rats after prolonged isolation. Physiology & Behavior 131, 62-67.

Social interactions during adolescence are important especially for neuronal development and behavior. We recently showed that positive emotions induced by repeated tickling could modulate fear-related behaviors and sympatho-adrenal stress responses. In the present study, we...

Krügel, U., Fischer, J., Bauer, K. et al. 2014. The impact of social isolation on immunological parameters in rats. Archives of Toxicology 88(3), 853-855.

In various toxicological studies, single housing of rodents is preferred to standardize for regulatory purposes. However, housing conditions can have severe, often underestimated, impact on results in toxicological examinations. As different husbandry conditions have been...

Sharp, J., Azar, T., Lawson, D. 2014. Effects of a complex housing environment on heart rate and blood pressure of rats at rest and after stressful challenges. JAALAS 53(1), 52-60.

Housing enrichment for rodents continues to be a discussion topic within the animal care community. The objective of this study was to determine the extent to which a complex housing environment affects heart rate, blood...

Turner, P. V., Sunohara-Neilson, J., Ovari, J. et al. 2014. Effects of single compared with pair housing on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activation and low-dose heroin place conditioning in adult male Sprague-Dawley rats. JAALAS 53(2), 161-167.

Whether social isolation of adult rats under standard laboratory conditions produces significant long-term alterations in behavior and physiology is unclear. In the present study, male Sprague–Dawley rats were singly or paired-housed for 10 wk. During...

Abou-Ismail, U. A., Darwish, R. A., Ramadan, S. G. A. 2014. Should cages of laboratory rats be enriched physically or socially? Global Veterinaria 13(4), 570-582.

Experiments of environmental enrichment usually compare between group-housed rats in enriched and unenriched cages or between group-housed rats in enriched cages and single-housed rats in unenriched cages. This bias is mainly to maximize the chance...

Szendrö, Z., Mikó, A., Odermatt, M. et al. 2013. Comparison of performance and welfare of single-caged and group-housed rabbit does. Animal 7(3), 463-468.

Although rabbit does are generally single housed on rabbit farms worldwide, it has been suggested by some specialists and recommendation of organic rabbit production systems that group housing of does is more comfortable and similar...

Reinhardt, V. (ed.) 2013. Compassion Makes a Difference - Discussions by the Laboratory Animal Refinement & Enrichment Forum [LAREF], Volume III. Animal Welfare Institute, Washington, DC.

This is the third volume of discussions that took place on the Laboratory Animal Refinement & Enrichment Forum (LAREF). This forum is dedicated to the exchange of personal experiences of refining the conditions under which...

Posadas, M., Neubauer, T., Buckmaster, C. A. 2013. Noisy construction does not have to generate noisy data. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 670-671 (Abstract).

Our institution opened the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurologic Research Institute (NRI) in November of 2010. This facility houses a team of world renowned researchers working with mice and rats to develop treatments for childhood...

Young, L., Lin, R. 2013. Strategies to in increase compatibility among pair-housed rabbits. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 667 (Abstract #P168).

The eighth edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (the Guide) states that appropriate social interaction among members of the same species is essential for normal animal development and wellbeing...

Winnicker, C. 2013. Challenges and opportunities of implementing EU standards for social housing of rodents. Enrichment Record 15, 3-4.

The EU Directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes specifically states: Animals, except those which are naturally solitary, shall be socially housed in stable groups of compatible individuals. Even in cases where...

Valuska, A. J., Mench, J. A. 2013. Size does matter: The effect of enclosure size on aggression and affiliation between female New Zealand White rabbits during mixing. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 149(1-4), 72-76.

Social enrichment is increasingly employed to improve the welfare of laboratory animals, including rabbits. However, the high levels of injurious aggression that can occur when unfamiliar adult rabbits are introduced to one another are a...

Hrapkiewicz, K., Colby, L. A., Denison, P. 2013. Clinical Laboratory Animal Medicine: An Introduction (4th Ed). Wiley-Blackwell, Ames, IA.

Clinical Laboratory Animal Medicine: An Introduction, Fourth Edition offers a user-friendly guide to the unique anatomy and physiology, care, common diseases, and treatment of small mammals and nonhuman primates. Carefully designed for ease of use...

Boivin, G. P. 2013. Availability of feces-free areas in rodent shoebox cages. Lab Animal 42(4), 135-141.

The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (the Guide) recommends that terrestrial mammals be provided space free of urine and feces in which to rest. To evaluate the feasibility of meeting this...

Rose, A. M. 2013. An inexpensive approach to social housing enrichment for laboratory rabbits and guinea pigs. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 1(4) (December), 46-48.

We analyzed our current enrichment protocols in order to develop and implement social experiences for our rabbit and guinea pig colonies. This article describes the development of an exercise pen for rabbits and a custom-made...

Andrist, C. A., Bigler, L. M., Wurbel, H. W. et al. 2012. Effects of group stability on aggression, stress and injuries in breeding rabbits. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 142(3-4), 182-188.

On Swiss rabbit breeding farms, group-housed does are usually kept singly for 12 days around parturition to avoid pseudogravidity, double litters and deleterious fighting for nests. After this isolation phase there is usually an integration...

Severs, E., Leszcynski, J. 2012. Training rats to shift into clean cages by using operant conditioning with positive reinforcement. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 632-633 (Abstract #PS8).

Changing soiled cages is an integral part of husbandry, yet it can be a source of stress for both animal and animal care technician. In one case, large geriatric rats weighing around 1 kg did...

Scotto, J. 2012. Group housing male rabbits: Yes, it can be done. Tech Talk [The Newsletter for Laboratory Animal Science Technicians] 17(6), 3.

Since we receive rabbits at 10-12 weeks of age and we only house them for about 3 to 4 weeks, we decided to give group housing a try. Change is hard for most people and...

Leys, L. J., McGaraughty, S., Radek, R. J. 2012. Rats housed on corncob bedding show less slow-wave sleep. JAALAS 51(6), 764-768.

Despite the reported advantages of corncob bedding, questions have emerged about how comfortable animals find this type of bedding as a resting surface. In this study, encephalography (EEG) was used to compare the effects of...

Horn, M. J., Hudson, S. V., Bostrom, L. A. et al. 2012. Effects of cage density, sanitation frequency, and bedding type on animal well-being and health and cage environment in mice and rats. JAALAS 51(6), 781-788.

Ongoing studies and historical data support the finding that deviations or exceptions from the cage density and sanitation frequency standards set forth in the Guide do not negatively affect animal health, welfare, or production parameters...

Gudsnuk, K., Champagne, F. A. 2012. Epigenetic influence of stress and social environment. ILAR Journal 53(3-4), 279-288.

Animal models of early-life stress and variation in social experience across the lifespan have contributed significantly to our understanding of the environmental regulation of the developing brain. Plasticity in neurobiological pathways regulating stress responsivity, cognition...

Azar, T., Sharp, J., Lawson, D. 2011. Heart rates of male and female Sprague-Dawley and spontaneously hypertensive rats housed singly or in groups. JAALAS 50(2), 75-84.

This study was conducted to confirm our previous reports that group housing lowered basal heart rate and various evoked heart-rate responses in Sprague-Dawley male and female rats and to extend these observations to spontaneously hypertensive...

Schipper, P., Nonkes, L. J., Karel, P. et al. 2011. Serotonin transporter genotype x construction stress interaction in rats. Behavioural Brain Research 223(1), 169-175.

A well-known example for gene x environment interactions in psychiatry is the one involving the low activity (s) allelic variant of the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) promoter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) that in the context of stress increases...

Raff, H., Bruder, E. D., Cullinan, W. E. et al. 2011. Effect of animal facility construction on basal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal and renin-aldosterone activity in the rat. Endocrinology 152(4), 1218-1221.

Although loud noise and intense vibration are known to alter the behavior and phenotype of laboratory animals, little is known about the effects of nearby construction. We studied the effect of a nearby construction project...