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. 
Yamada, P. H., Codognoto, V. M., Rydygier de Ruediger, F. et al. 2021. Pain assessment based on facial expression of bulls during castration. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 236, 105258.

Bovine castration can be performed surgically, chemically, or immunologically and the method used can influence animal welfare. The use of facial expressions is an efficient tool to quantify pain, but there has been limited study...

Prior, H., Holbrook, M. 2021. Strategies to encourage the adoption of social housing during cardiovascular telemetry recordings in non-rodents. Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods 108, 106959.

The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) is working with industry to promote social housing during cardiovascular telemetry recordings within non-rodent safety pharmacology and toxicology studies. Following surveys...

Sheil, M., Chambers, M., Polkinghorne, A. et al. 2021. Topical application of lidocaine and bupivacaine to disbudding wounds in dairy calves: Safety, toxicology and wound healing. Animals 11(3), 869.

Tri-Solfen® is a combination topical anaesthetic and antiseptic solution containing lidocaine, bupivacaine, adrenaline and cetrimide. Applied to wounds, it is reported to reduce the pain experienced by calves following thermocautery disbudding. While lidocaine and bupivacaine...

Juffinger, A., Schoiswohl, J., Stanitznig, A. et al. 2021. Mechanical nociceptive threshold, tissue alterations and horn growth in calves after injection of isoeugenol or clove oil under the horn bud. Animals 11(3), 828.

Disbudding of calves is a common, painful intervention. Due to cytotoxic and anesthetic properties, the injection of clove oil or its component isoeugenol may be less detrimental to animal welfare. We investigated mechanical nociceptive threshold...

Tschoner, T. 2021. Methods for pain assessment in calves and their use for the evaluation of pain during different procedures—A review. Animals 11(5), 1235.

The evaluation and assessment of the level of pain calves are experiencing is important, as the experience of pain (e.g., due to routine husbandry procedures) severely affects the welfare of calves. Studies about the recognition...

Bergamasco, L., Edwards-Callaway, L. N., Bello, N. M. et al. 2021. Unmitigated surgical castration in calves of different ages: Electroencephalographic and neurohormonal findings. Animals 11(6), 1791.

Castration is a common management procedure employed in North American cattle production and is known to cause a pain response. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of unmitigated surgical castration on the...

Steagall, P. V., Bustamante, H., Johnson, C. B. et al. 2021. Pain management in farm animals: Focus on cattle, sheep and pigs. Animals 11(6), 1483.

Pain causes behavioral, autonomic, and neuroendocrine changes and is a common cause of animal welfare compromise in farm animals. Current societal and ethical concerns demand better agricultural practices and improved welfare for food animals. These...

Lagoda, M. E., Boyle, L. A., Marchewka, J. et al. 2021. Early detection of locomotion disorders in gilts using a novel visual analogue scale; associations with chronic stress and reproduction. Animals 11(10), 2900.

Locomotion scoring is crucial for the early detection of lameness, which reduces sow welfare and performance. Our objective was to test the effectiveness of a visual analogue scale (VAS) to measure locomotory ability (OVERALL) compared...

Lee, M., Seo, S. 2021. Wearable wireless biosensor technology for monitoring cattle: A review. Animals 11(10), 2779.

The review aimed to collect information about the wearable wireless sensor system (WWSS) for cattle and to conduct a systematic literature review on the accuracy of predicting the physiological parameters of these systems. The WWSS...

Sheil, M., De Benedictis, G. M., Scollo, A. et al. 2021. Efficacy of intra-operative topical wound anaesthesia to mitigate piglet castration pain—A large, multi-centred field trial. Animals 11(10), 2763.

Piglet castration results in acute pain and stress to the animal. There is a critical need for effective on-farm methods of pain mitigation. Local anaesthesia using Tri-Solfen® (Animal Ethics Pty Ltd., Melbourne, Australia), a topical...

Ferrari, P., Ulrici, A., Barbari, M. 2021. Analysis of housing risk factors for the welfare of lean and heavy pigs in a sample of European fattening farms. Animals 11(11), 3221.

Pig welfare is affected by housing conditions, the minimum requirements of which are set up by EU legislation. Animal and non-animal-based measures are useful indicators to investigate housing risk factors for pig welfare. An observational...

Le Balle, R., Cote, J., Santos Fernandez, F. A. 2021. Evidence for animal personalities in two Brazilian tortoises (Chelonoidis denticulatus and Chelonoidis carbonarius) and insights for their conservation. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 241, 105400.

Animal personality, the consistent between-individual differences in e.g., risk-taking, exploration, antipredator or mating behaviours, has major impacts on the fitness of individuals in many species. Understanding how to quantify animal personality should help us predicting...

Thomas, A. D., Orsel, K., Cortés, J. A. et al. 2021. Impact of digital dermatitis on feedlot cattle behaviour. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 244, 105468.

Digital dermatitis (DD) is an infectious disease affecting the bovine digital skin which can cause lameness and significantly affect animal welfare and economics. Digital dermatitis has emerged in feedlots and early identification of DD lesions...

Schodl, K., Wiesauer, L., Winckler, C. et al. 2021. Reduced stocking density and provision of straw in a rack improve pig welfare on commercial fattening farms. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 8, 656211.

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of reduced stocking density in combination with provision of additional enrichment material on pig welfare on-farm. On three growing-finishing farms in Austria, in total 974...

Schoiswohl, J., Stanitznig, A., Sigmund, M. et al. 2021. Comparison of alternative disbudding methods with hot-iron dehorning of goat kids. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 46, 31-39.

Goat kids are frequently disbudded in intensively farmed units to reduce the number of accidental injuries to other animals and farm workers due to horn growth. The most commonly used method is thermal disbudding which...

Edwards, S. (Ed.) 2021. Understanding the behaviour and improving the welfare of pigs. Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing Limited, Sawston, Cambridge, UK. 594 p.

With growing concern from consumers and regulatory agencies about the welfare of farmed animals such as pigs, the livestock sector must assess how animal welfare can be improved whilst ensuring livestock production remains economically and...

Espinoza, C., Lomax, S., Windsor, P. 2020. The effect of topical anaesthesia on the cortisol responses of calves undergoing dehorning. Animals 10(2), 312.

Dehorning causes pain and distress to cattle, and there is a need to provide effective and practical analgesia to improve animal welfare. We conducted an experiment to determine the effect of a modified post-operative topical...

Neave, H. W., Costa, J. H. C., Weary, D. M. 2020. Long-term consistency of personality traits of cattle. Royal Society Open Science 7(2), 7191849.

Personality is often defined as the behaviour of individual animals that is consistent across contexts and over time. Personality traits may become unstable during stages of ontogeny from infancy to adulthood, especially during major periods...

Adcock, S., Tucker, C. B. 2020. Conditioned place preference reveals ongoing pain in calves 3 weeks after disbudding. Scientific Reports 10(1), 3849.

Hot-iron disbudding, a routine procedure that prevents horn bud growth through cauterization, is painful for calves. The resulting burns remain sensitive to touch for weeks, but it is unknown whether calves experience ongoing, non-evoked pain...

Ajuda, I., Battini, M., Mattiello, S. et al. 2020. Evaluation of pain mitigation strategies in goat kids after cautery disbudding. Animals 10(2), 277.

Nowadays, most of the goat milk production in developed countries is done in intensive indoors production systems. In these systems, procedures such as disbudding are performed routinely. Disbudding is done in young goat kids and...

Kress, K., Weiler, U., Schmucker, S. et al. 2020. Influence of housing conditions on reliability of immunocastration and consequences for growth performance of male pigs. Animals 10(1), 27.

Immunocastration is a sustainable alternative to piglet castration but faces limited market acceptance. The phenomenon of non-responders has not to date been examined in detail, but adverse and stressful housing conditions (e.g., mixing of groups)...

Chou, J.-Y., D’Eath, R. B., Sandercock, D. A. et al. 2020. Enrichment use in finishing pigs and its relationship with damaging behaviours: Comparing three wood species and a rubber floor toy. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 224, 104944.

Environmental enrichment in pig housing is a legal requirement under current EU legislation, but some recommended loose materials may cause obstructions in fully-slatted systems. Wood is an organic material that could be compatible with slatted...

Byrd, C. J., Radcliffe, J. S., Craig, B. A. et al. 2020. Measuring piglet castration pain using linear and non-linear measures of heart rate variability. Animal Welfare 29(3), 257-269.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether linear and non-linear measures of heart rate variability (HRV) could be used as indicators of piglet castration pain. Thirty piglets were allocated to 1 of 4...

Park, R. M., Cramer, M. C., Wagner, B. K. et al. 2020. A comparison of behavioural methodologies utilised to quantify deviations in piglet behaviour associated with castration. Animal Welfare 29(3), 285-292.

Surgical castration is a painful procedure that is routinely performed without pain relief on commercial pig (Sus scrofa domesticus) farms. Previous research has focused on quantifying piglet pain response through behaviours. However, to date, behavioural...

Hempstead, M. N., Waas, J. R., Stewart, M. et al. 2020. Goat kids are not small calves: Species comparisons in relation to disbudding. Animal Welfare 29(3), 293-312.

Limited scientific literature is available for developing 'best practices' guidelines for the management of dairy goats (Caprus hircus), particularly goat kids. Disbudding practices for kids and calves appear to be similar, however, it is important...