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. 
Byrd, R., Boyd, S., Buckmaster, C. 2018. Rat thunder jacket— A zen experience. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 6(3) (September), 55-57.

Germ-free rats are fairly uncommon, relative to germ-free mice, and restraining these animals safely and effectively for compound administration and blood collection can be challenging. There are many commercially available varieties of restraint devices, but...

Volgin, A. D., Yakovlev, O. V., Demin, K. A. et al. 2018. Understanding the role of environmental enrichment in zebrafish neurobehavioral models. Zebrafish 15(5), 425-432.

Environmental stimuli are critical in preclinical research that utilizes laboratory animals to model human brain disorders. The main goal of environmental enrichment (EE) is to provide laboratory animals with better choice of activity and greater...

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...

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...

Castelhano-Carlos, M. J., Baumans, V., Sousa, N. 2017. PhenoWorld: Addressing animal welfare in a new paradigm to house and assess rat behaviour. Laboratory Animals 51(1), 36-43.

The use of animals is essential in biomedical research. The laboratory environment where the animals are housed has a major impact on them throughout their lives and influences the outcome of animal experiments. Therefore, there...

Pinelli, C., Leri, F., Turner, P. 2017. Long term physiologic and behavioural effects of housing density and environmental resource provision for adult male and female Sprague Dawley rats. Animals 7(6), 44.

There is considerable interest in refining laboratory rodent environments to promote animal well-being, as well as research reproducibility. Few studies have evaluated the long term impact of enhancing rodent environments with resources and additional cagemates...

Brenneis, C., Westhof, A., Holschbach, J. et al. 2017. Automated tracking of motion and body weight for objective monitoring of rats in colony housing. JAALAS 56(1), 18-31.

Living together in large social communities within an enriched environment stimulates self-motivated activity in rats. We developed a modular housing system in which a single unit can accommodate as many as 48 rats and contains...

Martin, A. L. 2017. Theprimatologist as a behavioral engineer. American Journal of Primatology 79, e22500.

The field of primate behavior management has had only limited success in preventing and treating abnormal behaviors, such as stereotypy and self‐injury, in captive non‐human primates (NHP). In contrast, applied behavior analysts have had great...

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...

Alligood, C. A., Dorey, N. R., Mehrkam, L. R. et al. 2017. Applying behavior-analytic methodology to the science and practice of environmental enrichment in zoos and aquariums. Zoo Biology 36(3), 175–185.

Environmental enrichment in zoos and aquariums is often evaluated at two overlapping levels: published research and day‐to‐day institutional record keeping. Several authors have discussed ongoing challenges with small sample sizes in between‐groups zoological research and...

Kleefeld, S., Bannerton, K., Kelly, J.2017. Effect of moderate environmental enrichment on commonly used behavioural tests in rats. Animal Technology and Welfare 16(1), 75-76.

The environment that laboratory animals are housed in should reflect their natural habitats in a manner that can satisfy their innate physiological and behavioural needs. This includes nest building, hiding, exploring and foraging. Providing environmental...

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...

Jones, T., Robinson, M., Leach, M. et al. 2017. Ultrasonic vocalisation as a measure of positive welfare in rats. Animal Technology and Welfare 16(2), 127-129.

Studies of animal welfare in laboratory animals have historically relied on the measurement of negative indicators rather than the assessment of positive indicators of welfare. Practical methods of welfare assessment are required to allow refinement...

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...

Spiezio, C., Leonardi, C., Regaiolli, B. 2017. Assessing colour preference in Aldabra giant tortoises (Geochelone gigantea). Behavioural Processes 145, 60-64.

Tortoises perceive different colours and rely on the visual system to find food. However, few studies have considered colour preference in tortoises, especially in land species. The aim of this study is to investigate whether...

Mármol, F., Sánchez, J., Torres, M. N. et al. 2017. Environmental enrichment in the absence of wheel running produces beneficial behavioural and anti-oxidative effects in rats. Behavioural Processes 144, 66-71.

The effects of early environmental enrichment (EE) when solving a simple spatial task in adult male rats were assessed. After weaning, rats were housed in pairs in enriched or standard cages (EE and control groups)...

Coleman, K., Novak, M. A. 2017. Environmental enrichment in the 21st century. ILAR Journal 58(2), 295-307.

More than a quarter of a century has elapsed since the Animal Welfare Act mandated that research facilities develop and follow a plan to promote the psychological well-being of captive primates. Since passage of this...

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...

Rose, P. E., Nash, S. M., Riley, L. M. 2017. To pace or not to pace? A review of what abnormal repetitive behavior tells us about zoo animal management. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 20, 11-21.

Performance of abnormal repetitive behavior (ARB) is noted in many captive wild species. ARB can be categorized into 2 basic forms: those whose aim appears to be to compulsively reach an inappropriate goal and those...

Sands, C., Evans, C., Buckmaster, C. A. 2017. The grooming sleeve: Encouraging conspecific-like behavior and strengthening the human-animal bond. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 5(2) (June), 52-53.

The act of grooming has been found to greatly decrease stress, heart rate, and cortisol levels in nonhuman primates; this decrease in stress and cortisol is seen in the animal being groomed, as well as...

Danner, L., Rao, V. P. 2017. Should rat enrichment devices be used beyond a month? Laboratory Animal Science Professional 5(1) (March), 41-43.

Enrichment devices made of materials such as nylon and wood are common gnawing devices used in animal facilities. In most institutions, these devices are used for a limited period and then discarded. At Pfizer, enrichment...

Rossi, N. 2017. The other 3Rs: Reduce, reuse, and recycle for rodents. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 5(1) (March), 44-46.

Since funding can be scarce, I seek novel and economical ways to promote the psychological wellbeing of the animals through environmental enrichment and allow research animals to express species-specific behaviors and control their environment to...

Dupont, M. 2017. An investigation into whether food-based environmental enrichment will increase the activity levels of Alaotran gentle lemurs (Hapalemur alaotrensis) at Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park. RATEL (Journal of the Association of British and Irish Wild Animal Keepers) 44(1), 14-17.

Excessive weight gain and obesity is becoming a more frequent problem affecting captive lemurs. Animals have evolved to survive in specific environments, causing them to perform species-specific behaviours which animals are highly motivated to perform...

Smith, B. L., Lyons, C. E., Correa, F. G. et al. 2017. Behavioral and physiological consequences of enrichment loss in rats. Psychoneuroendocrinology 77, 37-46.

Significant loss produces the highest degree of stress and compromised well-being in humans. Current rodent models of stress involve the application of physically or psychologically aversive stimuli, but do not address the concept of loss...