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. 
Cavallino, L., Rincón, L., Scaia, M. F. 2023. Social behaviors as welfare indicators in teleost fish. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10, 1050510.

Animal welfare is a key issue not only for aquaculture industry and food production, but also for daily husbandry practices in research topics related to physiology in wild and farmed animals. In this context, teleost...

Holhorea, P. G., Felip, A., Calduch-Giner, J. À. et al. 2023. Use of male-to-female sex reversal as a welfare scoring system in the protandrous farmed gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata). Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 1083255.

Gilthead sea bream is a highly cultured marine fish throughout the Mediterranean area, but new and strict criteria of welfare are needed to assure that the intensification of production has no negative effects on animal...

Zare, M., Heidari, E., Hosseini Choupani, S. M. et al. 2023. The recovery time between early mild stress and final acute stress affects survival rate, immunity, health, and physiology of oscar (Astronotus ocellatus). Animals 13(10), 1606.

This study investigated how the time interval between the last EMS (netting) and the acute confinement stress (AC stress) at the end of the experiment can influence growth, haematology, blood biochemistry, immunological response, antioxidant system...

Dara, M., Carbonara, P., La Corte, C. et al. 2023. Fish welfare in aquaculture: Physiological and immunological activities for diets, social and spatial stress on Mediterranean aqua cultured species. Fishes 8(8), 414.

Welfare assessment currently is less well-characterized for aquatic animals and the classical methodologies used for terrestrial animals are not adequate to improve our knowledge about fish well-being. Among different approaches, the status of organism responses...

Alvarado, M. V., Felip, A., Espigares, F. et al. 2023. Unexpected appetitive events promote positive affective state in juvenile European sea bass. Scientific Reports 13(1), 22064.

Some animal species exhibit considerable physiological and behavioural alterations in response to captivity. It has been hypothesized, but rarely tested, that such changes reflect a negative affective state that is associated to this specific context...

da Santa Lopes, T., Costas, B., Ramos-Pinto, L. et al. 2023. Exploring the effects of acute stress exposure on lumpfish plasma and liver biomarkers. Animals 13(23), 3623.

This study aimed to expand knowledge on lumpfish stress physiology by investigating the effects of acute stress on primary (i.e., cortisol) and secondary (e.g., metabolites) stress responses, as well as oxidative stress biomarkers, from stress...

Dara, M., Carbonara, P., La Corte, C. et al. 2023. Fish welfare in aquaculture: Physiological and immunological activities for diets, social and spatial stress on mediterranean aqua cultured species. Fishes 8(8), 414.

Welfare assessment currently is less well-characterized for aquatic animals and the classical methodologies used for terrestrial animals are not adequate to improve our knowledge about fish well-being. Among different approaches, the status of organism responses...

Lertwanakarn, T., Purimayata, T., Luengyosluechakul, T. et al. 2023. Assessment of tilapia (oreochromis spp.) welfare in the semi-intensive and intensive culture systems in Thailand. Animals 13(15), 2498.

Welfare assessments have risen to prominence in the aquaculture industry, with increasing awareness of their significance among stakeholders in Thailand. In this study, we conducted a welfare assessment of tilapia (Oreochromis spp.) farms in Thailand...

Littlewood, K. E., Heslop, M. V., Cobb, M. L. 2023. The agency domain and behavioral interactions: Assessing positive animal welfare using the Five Domains Model. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.
Pedrazzani, A. S., Cozer, N., Quintiliano, M. H. et al. 2023. From egg to slaughter: Monitoring the welfare of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, throughout their entire life cycle in aquaculture. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.
Rogers, L. J. 2023. Knowledge of lateralized brain function can contribute to animal welfare. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.

The specialized functions of each hemisphere of the vertebrate brain are summarized together with the current evidence of lateralized behavior in farm and companion animals, as shown by the eye or ear used to attend...

Wiese, T. R., Rey Planellas, S., Betancor, M. et al. 2023. Qualitative Behavioural Assessment as a welfare indicator for farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in response to a stressful challenge. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.

Animal welfare assessments have struggled to investigate the emotional states of animals while focusing solely on available empirical evidence. Qualitative Behavioural Assessment (QBA) may provide insights into an animal’s subjective experiences without compromising scientific rigor...

McIndoe, K. S., Saunders, R., Blackwell, E. J. et al. 2022. The effect of blindfolding and swaddling on the stress response to handling in domestic rabbits. Animal Welfare 31(1), 27-36.

Stress during handling can negatively impact the welfare of an animal. Gradual habituation or systematic desensitisation can reduce this but is not always possible. Blindfolding has been shown to decrease stress indicators, including heart rate...

Hamlaoui, A., Keeling, L., Burman, O. et al. 2022. Investigating attentional scope as a novel indicator of emotional state in animals. Scientific Reports 12(1), 17452.

In humans, contrasting emotional states can lead to a broadening or narrowing of attentional scope. Whether this is also the case in animals has yet to be investigated. If confirmed, measurement of attentional scope has...

Hamlaoui, A., Keeling, L., Burman, O. et al. 2022. Investigating attentional scope as a novel indicator of emotional state in animals. Scientific Reports 12(1), 17452.

In humans, contrasting emotional states can lead to a broadening or narrowing of attentional scope. Whether this is also the case in animals has yet to be investigated. If confirmed, measurement of attentional scope has...

Imsland, A. K. D., Berg, M. S., Haugland, G. T. et al. 2022. Comparing body density of lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus) to different operational welfare indicators. Fishes 7(5), 284.

Farmed lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus) are commonly used as cleaner fish in the salmonid aquaculture industry, but a knowledge gap exists with regards to their body density. Filling this knowledge gap is of importance, as the...

Powell, A. 2021. Rubber net mesh reduces scale loss during routine handling of farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). Animal Welfare 30(1), 19-24.

Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) are an economically and ecologically important fish species that interact with humans during farming, fishing and research operations. Routine handling in nets exposes fish to mesh and causes scale loss. To...

Tschirren, L., Bachmann, D., Güler, A. C. et al. 2021. MyFishCheck: A model to assess fish welfare in aquaculture. Animals 11(1), 145.

Welfare in animal husbandry includes considerations of biology, ethics, ecology, law and economics. These diverse aspects must be translated into common quantifiable parameters and applicable methods to objectively assess welfare in animals. To assist this...

Berlinghieri, F., Panizzon, P., Penry-Williams, I. L. et al. 2021. Laterality and fish welfare - A review. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 236, 105239.

Humans interact with fishes in many contexts including aquaculture, scientific study and companion animals. In all of these contexts, fish welfare can be compromised through anthropogenic means. Concern for fish welfare has grown considerably in...

Stamp Dawkins, M. 2021. The Science of Animal Welfare: Understanding what Animals Want (1st ed). Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

What is animal welfare? Why has it proved so difficult to find a definition that everyone can agree on? This concise and accessible guide is for anyone who is interested in animals and who has...

Uiuiu, P., Lațiu, C., Păpuc, T. et al. 2021. Multi-approach assessment for stress evaluation in rainbow trout females, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum, 1792) from three different farms during the summer season. Animals 11(6), 1810.

Blood biochemistry parameters are valuable tools for monitoring fish health. Their baseline values are still undefined for a multitude of farmed fish species. In this study, changes in the blood profile of rainbow trout females...

Backström, T., Brännäs, E., Nilsson, J. et al. 2021. Proof of concept: Visual categorization of carotenoid pigmentation in Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus L) can predict stress response. Journal of Fish Biology 98(4), 1192-1195.

Carotenoid pigmentation in Salvelinus alpinus has been connected to stress responsiveness in earlier studies. This has, however, only been tested with time-consuming image analysis from photos. Here, we used quick visual categorization of carotenoid pigmentation...

Kolarevic, J., Calduch-Giner, J., Espmark, Å. M. et al. 2021. A novel miniaturized biosensor for monitoring Atlantic salmon swimming activity and respiratory frequency. Animals 11(8), 2403.

The advanced development of sensor technologies has led to the emergence of fish biosensors that are currently used for research and commercial purposes. AEFishBIT is a miniaturized biosensor attached to fish operculum that measures physical...

Travain, T., Valsecchi, P. 2021. Infrared thermography in the study of animals’ emotional responses: A critical review. Animals 11(9), 2510.

Whether animals have emotions was historically a long-lasting question but, today, nobody disputes that they do. However, how to assess them and how to guarantee animals their welfare have become important research topics in the...

Wang, G., Muhammad, A., Liu, C. et al. 2021. Automatic recognition of fish behavior with a fusion of RGB and optical flow data based on deep learning. Animals 11(10), 2774.

The rapid and precise recognition of fish behavior is critical in perceiving health and welfare by allowing farmers to make informed management decisions on recirculating aquaculture systems while reducing labor. The conventional recognition methods are...