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. 
Zemanova, M. A. 2020. Towards more compassionate wildlife research through the 3Rs principles: Moving from invasive to noninvasive methods. Wildlife Biology 2020(1), no page numbers.

Research in ecology and wildlife biology remains crucial for increasing our knowledge and improving species management and conservation in the midst of the current biodiversity crisis. However, obtaining information on population status often involves invasive...

Reinhardt, V. (ed.) 2020. It’s Okay to Cry - Discussions by the Laboratory Animal Refinement & Enrichment Forum [LAREF], Volume V. Animal Welfare Institute, Washington, DC.

This is the 5th volume of selected discussions that took place on the electronic Laboratory Animal Refinement & Enrichment Forum between February 2016 and December 2019. The forum was created in October 2002; it allows...

Kennedy, R. J., Evans, D., Allen, M. 2020. Long-term retention of dummy acoustic transmitters in adult brown trout. Journal of Fish Biology 97(4), 1281–1284.

A group of 36 1+ age class Salmo trutta were surgically implanted with dummy acoustic tags and monitored for 370 days. In total 13 tags were expelled throughout the experiment with an overall tag loss...

Lewis, R., Dawson, S., Rayment, W. 2020. Estimating population parameters of broadnose sevengill sharks (Notorynchus cepedianus) using photo identification capture-recapture. Fish Biology 97(4), 987–995.

Capture-recapture methods are now widely used for quantifying abundance and movements of elasmobranchs. This method requires that individuals in the population are uniquely identifiable and has been employed in studies that use baited underwater video...

Szymczyk, K., Gabriel, S., Zegre Cannon, C. 2020. Removing the blindfold in blind intubation: A summary of tips and tricks for successful rabbit intubation. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 8(5) (September/October), 76-81.

Intubation in rabbits can be difficult due to their unique anatomical features. Large incisors, long narrow oral cavities, thick tongues, and limited mobility of the temporomandibular joint make laryngeal visualization difficult. It is the hope...

Baskir, E. A., Kucharski, S., Powell, D. M. 2020. Chinchilla (Chinchilla lanigera) behavioral responses to a visual signal preceding handling. Zoo Biology 39(6), 391-396.

Zoos use ambassador animals in educational programs featuring close contact with humans. Chinchillas (Chinchilla lanigera) at the Saint Louis Zoo are retrieved for programs by a keeper wearing brown handling gloves, but green cleaning gloves...

Tilley, C. A., Carreño Gutierrez, H., Sebire, M. et al. 2020. Skin swabbing is a refined technique to collect DNA from model fish species. Scientific Reports 10(1), 18212.

Model fish species such as sticklebacks and zebrafish are frequently used in studies that require DNA to be collected from live animals. This is typically achieved by fin clipping, a procedure that is simple and...

Pedrazzani, A. S., Quintiliano, M. H., Bolfe, F. et al. 2020. Tilapia on-farm welfare assessment protocol for semi-intensive production systems. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 7, 606388.

The aim of this study was to develop and test a tilapia on-farm welfare assessment protocol, based on Brazilian semi-intensive production systems. The study included two mains steps: the elaboration of tilapia welfare protocol and...

Bill, J., Rauterberg, S. L., Stracke, J. et al. 2019. Prevalence and severity of tail lesions as a possible welfare indicator for rabbit does. Animal Welfare 28(4), 511-518.

The impact of behavioural disorders on animal welfare in modern animal husbandry has been much debated. While other abnormal behaviours have been explored at length, there are a paucity of studies on tail-biting in rabbits...

McMurray, C., Allen, N., Hook, S. et al. 2018. I3S software as a refinement technique to identify individuals within a captive Scyliorhinus canula population. Animal Technology and Welfare 17(3), 204-205 (IAT Congress 2018 Poster Presentation).

Demarking individual animals within a group is often required in research. However, the process of invasive tagging induces stress and if a tag becomes detached it may wound the animal and/or prevent identification. Photo identification...

Lee, L. Y., Lee, D., Ryu, H. et al. 2019. Capnography-guided endotracheal intubation as an alternative to existing intubation methods in rabbits. JAALAS 58(2), 240-245.

Rabbits provide a unique challenge for routine endotracheal intubation in clinical practice because of various distinctive anatomic and physiologic features. Many previously proposed methods for endotracheal intubation in rabbits are limited by several factors, including...

Reemeyer, J. E., Harris, J. C., Hernandez, A. M. et al. 2019. Effects of passive integrated transponder tagging on cortisol release, aerobic metabolism and growth of the Gulf killifish Fundulus grandis. Journal of Fish Biology 94(3), 422-433.

The effects of passive integrated transponder (PIT) tagging on cortisol release, standard metabolic rate (SMR) and daily specific growth rate (GS) were evaluated in the Gulf killifish, Fundulus grandis, a small estuarine fish native to...

Domingues, R. R., Garrone-Neto, D., Hilsdorf, A. W. S. et al. 2019. Use of mucus as a non-invasive sampling method for DNA barcoding of stingrays and skates (batoid elasmobranchs). Journal of Fish Biology 94(3), 512-516.

In this study we tested the use of mucus from five species of Neotropical marine batoid elasmobranchs to extract genomic DNA for barcoding and phylogenetic analysis. The DNA from all individuals sampled was successfully amplified...

Lambert, C. J., Freshner, B. C., Chung, A. et al. 2018. An automated system for rapid cellular extraction from live zebrafish embryos and larvae: Development and application to genotyping. PLOS ONE 13(3), e0193180.

Zebrafish are a valuable model organism in biomedical research. Their rapid development, ability to model human diseases, utility for testing genetic variants identified from next-generation sequencing, amenity to CRISPR mutagenesis, and potential for therapeutic compound...

Wolfe, A. M., Rahman, M., McFadden, D. G. et al. 2018. Refinement and successful implementation of a scoring system for myxomatosis in a susceptible rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) model. Comparative Medicine 68(4), 280–285.

Myxoma virus is a member of Leporipoxviridae whose tropism is tightly restricted to lagomorphs. In susceptible Oryctolagus rabbits, the virus causes a highly lethal disease known as myxomatosis, which begins as a localized infection but...

Kennedy, R. J., Allen, M., Wilson, R. 2018. Tag retention and mortality of adult Atlantic salmon Salmo salar gastrically tagged with different sized telemetry transmitters. Journal of Fish Biology 92(6), 2016-2021.

A batch of 1 sea winter pre-spawning adult Salmo salar from the Bush river in Northern Ireland, U.K., were gastrically tagged with large (13-mm diameter) and small (9-mm diameter) dummy acoustic telemetry tags alongside untagged...

Riley, W. D., Ibbotson, A. T., Gregory, S. D. et al. 2018. Under what circumstances does the capture and tagging of wild Atlantic salmon Salmo salar smolts affect probability of return as adults? Journal of Fish Biology 93(3), 477-489.

Adult return rates for wild Atlantic salmon Salmo salar smolts captured in a rotary screw trap and tagged with coded wire (CW) tags were compared with a control group, using detections from passive integrated transponder...

Ruberto, T., Clément, R. J. G., Spinello, C. et al. 2018. The tagging procedure of visible implant elastomers influences zebrafish individual and social behavior. Zebrafish 15(5), 433-444.

One commonly used method to preserve individual identity in the study of social behavior of zebrafish is through silicone-based visible implant elastomers (VIEs), which represent a safe and durable tagging procedure. While the effects of...

Breacker, C., Barber, I., Norton, W. H. J. et al. 2017. A low-cost method of skin swabbing for the collection of DNA samples from small laboratory fish. Zebrafish 14(1), 35-41.

Fin clipping of live fish under anesthesia is widely used to collect samples for DNA extraction. An alternative, potentially less invasive, approach involves obtaining samples by swabbing the skin of nonanesthetized fish. However, this method...

Miranda, A., Pego, J. M., Correia-Pinto, J. 2017. Animal facility videoendoscopic intubation station: Tips and tricks from mice to rabbits. Laboratory Animals 51(2), 204-207.

Endotracheal intubation of laboratory animals is a common procedure shared by several research fields for different purposes, such as mechanical ventilation of anaesthetized animals, instillation of cytotoxic nanoparticles, infectious agents or tumour cells for induction...

Lawton, S. 2017. Do Buccal swabs from Zebrafish give enough of a sample of DNA to be used as a viable non-invasive method of genotyping? Animal Technology and Welfare 16(3), 155-164.

The zebrafish has become a valuable research model within the laboratory. Currently the proven method of genotyping involves taking a tail fin clip from the fish to gain the sample. This involves surgically removing a...

Breacker, C., Tilley, C. 2017. DNA sampling by skin swabbing for Zebrafish (Danio rerio) and sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Animal Technology and Welfare 16(3), 211-213.

Fin clipping of live fish under anaesthesia is widely used to collect tissues samples for DNA extraction. However, this technique raises a number of ethical concerns, since the use of anaesthetic and/or physical fin damage...

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...

O'Connell, C. P., Leurs, G. 2016. A minimally invasive technique to assess several life-history characteristics of the endangered great hammerhead shark Sphyrna mokarran. Journal of Fish Biology 88(3), 1257-1264.

A dorsal-fin photo-identification technique paired with a non-invasive parallel laser photogrammetry technique was used to non-invasively identify individual Sphyrna mokarran over time. Based on the data collected over a duration of 59 days, 16 different...

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...