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. 
Stracke, J., Volkmann, N., May, F. et al. 2021. Walking on tiptoes: Digital pads deserve increased attention when scoring footpad dermatitis as an animal welfare indicator in turkeys. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 7, 613516.

Animal welfare is one of the most challenging issues in modern farm animal husbandry. Animal welfare indicators can be used to monitor welfare on farms or at slaughterhouses, with footpad dermatitis (FPD) being one of...

Barretta, L. A., Maloney, S. K., Blachea, D. 2021. Pekin ducks are motivated to access their nest site and exhibit a stress-induced hyperthermia when unable to do so. Animal 15(1), 100067.

The origins of floor-laying in ducks could be low motivation for a nest, or stress related to difficulties with accessing a nest (e.g. competition). Using a behavioural demand test, we investigated if increasing the work...

Stevens, A., Doneley, R., Cogny, A. et al. 2021. The effects of environmental enrichment on the behaviour of cockatiels (Nymphicus hollandicus) in aviaries. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 235, 105154.

Most research to enrich the environment of psittacines in captivity has focused on foraging. Little is known about the importance of bathing substrates for enrichment of their environment, despite this being a natural behaviour that...

Swan, K.-M., Telkänranta, H., Munsterhjelm, C. et al. 2021. Access to chewable materials during lactation affects sow behaviour and interaction with piglets. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 234, 105174.

We investigated how providing chewable materials to piglets during the early weeks of life affect sow behaviour, sow and piglet interaction and sow health in pens with farrowing crates. We divided 59 pregnant sows into...

Tahamtani, F. M., Herskin, M. S., Foldager, L. et al. 2021. Assessment of mobility and pain in broiler chickens with identifiable gait defects. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 234, 105183.

Gait defects, assessed as gait score (GS), is a common welfare problem in broiler chicken production. The aim of this study was to examine whether birds with GS2 experience pain and poor locomotor ability compared...

Aparecida Martins, R., Ribeiro Caldara, F., Crone, C. et al. 2021. Strategic use of straw as environmental enrichment for prepartum sows in farrowing crates. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 234, 105194.

Sows are highly motivated to build a nest prior to farrowing, but, given the barren environment of farrowing crates, this behaviour is limited and improperly expressed. We aimed to assess the effects of a straw...

Olson, M. J., Creamer, M., Horback, K. M. 2021. Identification of specific call types produced by pre-weaning gilts in response to isolation. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 234, 105203.

Monitoring the vocalizations produced by livestock in commercial facilities can be used to remotely assess the arousal, and perhaps welfare, of the animals. Domestic swine is an ideal candidate for this type of assessment as...

Egan, S., Kearney, C. M., Brama, P. A. J. et al. 2021. Exploring stable-based behaviour and behaviour switching for the detection of bilateral pain in equines. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 235, 105214.

Efficient and sensitive animal pain detection approaches are increasingly studied with the goal of improving animal welfare and monitoring the efficacy of treatment and rehabilitation. The aim of this study was to determine the potential...

Kauselmann, K., Krause, E. T., Glitz, B. et al. 2021. Effect of plant-based enrichment materials on exploration in rearing and fattening pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 236, 105261.

When pigs cannot perform innate species-specific behaviours (e.g. rooting or chewing), behavioural disorders, like tail biting, can occur. However, it seems that various enrichment materials enhance the pigs to perform exploration behaviour and therefore can...

Stomp, M., d’Ingeo, S., Henry, S. et al. 2021. Brain activity reflects (chronic) welfare state: Evidence from individual electroencephalography profiles in an animal model. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 236, 105271.

Assessing the animal welfare state is a challenge given the subjective individual cognitive and emotional processing involved. Electroencephalography (EEG) spectrum analysis has proved an ecologically valid recording situation to assess the link between brain processes...

Coleman, K., Shapiro, S. J. (Eds.). 2021. Behavioral Biology of Laboratory Animals (1st ed). CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.

This 30-chapter volume informs students and professionals about the behavioral biology of animals commonly housed in laboratory and other captive settings. Each species evolved under specific environmental conditions, resulting in unique behavioral patterns, many of...

Sørensen, D., Cloutier, S., Gaskill, B. (Eds.). 2021. Animal-centric Care and Management - Enhancing Refinement in Biomedical Research. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.

The concept of the 3Rs (Refinement, Reduction and Replacement) has been used as a framework for improving the welfare of laboratory animals for the last half century. By establishing an animal-centric view on housing and...

Auer, U., Kelemen, Z., Engl, V. et al. 2021. Activity time budgets—A potential tool to monitor equine welfare? Animals 11(3), 850.

Horses’ behavior can provide valuable insight into their subjective state and is thus a good indicator of welfare. However, its complexity requires objective, quantifiable, and unambiguous evidence-based assessment criteria. As healthy, stress-free horses exhibit a...

Ryan, M., Waters, R., Wolfensohn, S. 2021. Assessment of the welfare of experimental cattle and pigs using the animal welfare assessment grid. Animals 11(4), 999.

The Animal Welfare Assessment Grid (AWAG) is a method for assessing quality of life, originally designed for experimental primates. This study adapts the AWAG for use in cattle and pigs, by adapting the factors included...

Shao, H., Pu, J., Mu, J. 2021. Pig-posture recognition based on computer vision: Dataset and exploration. Animals 11(5), 1295.

Posture changes in pigs during growth are often precursors of disease. Monitoring pigs’ behavioral activities can allow us to detect pathological changes in pigs earlier and identify the factors threatening the health of pigs in...

van Loon, J. P. A. M., Macri, L. 2021. Objective assessment of chronic pain in horses using the Horse Chronic Pain Scale (HCPS): A scale-construction study. Animals 11(6), 1826.

The objective assessment of chronic pain is of utmost importance for improving welfare and quality of life in horses. Freedom from disease and pain is one of the ‘five freedoms’ that are necessary for animal...

Andersen, P. H., Broomé, S., Rashid, M. et al. 2021. Towards machine recognition of facial expressions of pain in horses. Animals 11(6), 1643.

Automated recognition of human facial expressions of pain and emotions is to a certain degree a solved problem, using approaches based on computer vision and machine learning. However, the application of such methods to horses...

Besteiro, R., Arango, T., Ortega, J. et al. 2021. Long-term measurement of piglet activity using passive infrared detectors. Animals 11(6), 1607.

Measuring animal activity is useful for monitoring animal welfare in real time. In this regard, passive infrared detectors have been used in recent years to quantify piglet activity because of their robustness and ease of...

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...

Manthey, T., Nagel-Riedasch, S., Dülsner, A. 2021. The interactive stress assessment in basic animal science training. Animals 11(7), 2145.

In order to assess the extent to which the legally prescribed training for the acquisition of animal experimentation expertise provides scientific personnel with the necessary competence and expertise to carry out a correct harm-benefit analysis...

Pearson, G., Waran, N., Reardon, R. J. M. et al. 2021. A Delphi study to determine expert consensus on the behavioural indicators of stress in horses undergoing veterinary care. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 237, 105291.

Horses undergoing veterinary care may perceive the experience to be stressful and their behavioural responses can result in injuries to people involved in their care. Being able to accurately measure the stress response in horses...

Hintze, S., Schanz, L. 2021. Using the judgment bias task to identify behavioral indicators of affective state: Do eye wrinkles in horses reflect mood? Frontiers in Veterinary Science 8, 676888.

Identifying and validating behavioral indicators of mood are important for the assessment of animal welfare. Here, we investigated whether horses' eye wrinkle expression in a presumably neutral situation is a measure of mood as assessed...

Malchow, J., Schrader, L. 2021. Effects of an elevated platform on welfare aspects in male conventional broilers and dual-purpose chickens. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 8, 660602.

To avoid killing day-old male chicks, one possibility is to keep dual-purpose chicken strains. Here, the hens were kept for egg production, and the roosters were kept for meat production. Both sexes had moderate performances...

Gómez, Y., Stygar, A. H., Boumans, I. J. M. M. et al. 2021. A systematic review on validated precision livestock farming technologies for pig production and its potential to assess animal welfare. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 8, 660565.

Several precision livestock farming (PLF) technologies, conceived for optimizing farming processes, are developed to detect the physical and behavioral changes of animals continuously and in real-time. The aim of this review was to explore the...

Yatkin, E., Kulmala, N., Saukkonen, A. et al. 2021. A real-time health notification system aimed at enhancing the interaction between animal care staff and researchers promotes animal welfare. Laboratory Animals 55(3), 281-289.

Regardless of the microbiological status of an animal facility, research animals may experience health problems, leading to pain, suffering and distress. Simple and efficient tools are needed to collect data systematically, allowing researchers to react...