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. 
Telkanranta, H., Valros, A. 2020. Pigs with but not without access to pieces of recently harvested wood show reduced pen-mate manipulation after a provision of feed and straw. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 232, 105103.

In barren environments of commercial farms, pig often redirect their rooting and chewing behaviours at other pigs, which can lead to tail biting. When materials such as straw are provided, the quantity is usually too...

Wilder, T., Krieter, J., Kemper, N. et al. 2020. Tail-directed behaviour in pigs – relation to tail posture and tail lesion. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 233, 105151.

Tail-biting in pigs affects the health and welfare of the animals. Different indicators, such as the tail posture, can be used to detect tail-biting at an early stage. The aim of this study was to...

Camerlink, I., Chou, J.-Y., Turner, S. P. 2020. Intra-group lethal gang aggression in domestic pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus). Animals 10(8), 1287.

Intraspecific coalitional aggression is rare among all species, especially within stable social groups. We report here numerous cases of intraspecific lethal gang aggression within stable groups of domestic pigs. The objective was to describe this...

Chou, J.-Y., Sandercock, D. A., D'Eath, R. B. et al. 2020. A High Enrichment replenishment rate reduces damaging behaviors and increases growth rate in undocked pigs kept in fully slatted pens. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 7, 584706.

One of the difficulties in complying with the prohibition of routine tail docking is a lack of effective alternative solutions to prevent tail biting, especially in fully slatted systems. This study compared three slat-compatible enrichment...

Dalmau, A., Moles, X., Pallisera, J. 2020. Animal welfare assessment protocol for does, bucks, and kit rabbits reared for production. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 7, 445.

Rabbits are the third species in terms of number of animals reared for meat production in the world. However, in comparison to other species, very few studies have focused on their welfare. The aim of...

Navarro, E., Mainau, E., Manteca, X. 2020. Development of a facial expression scale using farrowing as a model of pain in sows. Animals 10(11), 2113.

Changes in facial expression have been shown to be a useful tool to assess pain severity in humans and animals, but facial scales have not yet been developed for all species. A facial expression scale...

Sheil, M., Polkinghorne, A. 2020. Optimal methods of documenting analgesic efficacy in neonatal piglets undergoing castration. Animals 10(9), 1450.

Analgesic products for piglet castration are critically needed. This requires extensive animal experimentation such as to meet regulatory-required proof of efficacy. At present, there are no validated methods of assessing pain in neonatal piglets. This...

Miretti, S., Lecchi, C., Ceciliani, F. et al. 2020. MicroRNAs as biomarkers for animal health and welfare in livestock. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 7, 578193.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small and highly conserved non-coding RNA molecules that orchestrate a wide range of biological processes through the post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. An intriguing aspect in identifying these molecules as biomarkers is...

Mogil, J. S., Pang, D. S. J., Silva Dutra, G. G. et al. 2020. The development and use of facial grimace scales for pain measurement in animals. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 116, 480-496.

The measurement of pain in animals is surprisingly complex, and remains a critical issue in veterinary care and biomedical research. Based on the known utility of pain measurement via facial expression in verbal and especially...

Wallgren, T., Larsen, A., Gunnarsson, S. 2019. Tail posture as an indicator of tail biting in undocked finishing pigs. Animals 9(1), 18.

Tail posture (i.e., hanging or curled) has been suggested to be an indicator of tail biting, and hanging tails predisposed to damage. The aim of this study was to investigate if tail posture was feasible...

Chou, J.-Y., Drique, C. M. V., Sandercock, D. A. et al. 2019. Rearing undocked pigs on fully slatted floors using multiple types and variations of enrichment. Animals 9(4), 139.

In fully slatted systems, tail biting is difficult to manage when pigs’ tails are not docked because loose enrichment material can obstruct slurry systems. This pilot study sought to determine: a) whether intact-tailed pigs can...

Howell, C. P., Cheyne, S. M. 2019. Complexities of using wild versus captive activity budget comparisons for assessing captive primate welfare. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 22(1), 78-96.

Activity budget comparisons between groups or individuals in the wild and those in captivity are commonly used to determine the range of wild-type behaviors that nonhuman animals in captivity perform. These comparisons are conducted with...

Pelant Lahrmann, H., Faustrup, J. F., Hansen, C. F. et al. 2019. The effect of straw, rope, and bite-rite treatment in weaner pens with a tail biting outbreak. Animals 9(6), 365.

Tail biting in pigs is an injurious behaviour that spreads rapidly in a group. We investigated three different treatments to stop ongoing tail biting outbreaks in 65 pens of 6–30 kg undocked pigs (30 pigs...

Marcet-Rius, M., Fàbrega, E., Cozzi, A. et al. 2019. Are tail and ear movements indicators of emotions in tail-docked pigs in response to environmental enrichment? Animals 9(7), 449.

The inclusion of emotional indicators in farm monitoring methods can improve welfare assessments. Studies in controlled conditions have suggested that increased tail movement is an indicator of positive emotions in pigs, while others have proposed...

Larsen, M. L. V., Pedersen, L. J., Jensen, D. B. 2019. Prediction of tail biting events in finisher pigs from automatically recorded sensor data. Animals 9(7), 458.

Tail biting in pigs is an animal welfare problem, and tail biting should be prevented from developing into tail damage. One strategy could be to predict events of tail biting so that the farmer can...

Mattiello, S., Battini, M., De Rosa, G. et al. 2019. How can we assess positive welfare in ruminants? Animals 9(10), 758.

Until now, most research has focused on the development of indicators of negative welfare, and relatively few studies provide information on valid, reliable, and feasible indicators addressing positive aspects of animal welfare. However, a lack...

McNamara, A., Allen, L. 2019. Bottle or bowl? Feeding and dosing in juvenile Göttingen minipigs. Animal Technology and Welfare 18(2), 153-154. (IAT Congress 2018 Poster Presentation)

The Laboratory Animal Technology department at Envigo were engaged to perform a toxicity study in juvenile Göttingen Minipigs. The test compound was a human milk formula additive. Therefore, to mimic the conditions of clinical administration...

Cornale, P., Macchi, E., Miretti, S. et al. 2015. Effects of stocking density and environmental enrichment on behavior and fecal corticosteroid levels of pigs under commercial farm conditions. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 10(6), 569-576.

In intensive pig farming of Western and Southern Europe, welfare concerns are still often related to barren environments and crowded conditions. Pig producers need to balance the requirements to improve welfare conditions at farm with...

Balansard, I., Cleverley, L., Cutler, K. L. et al. 2019. Revised recommendations for health monitoring of non-human primate colonies (2018): FELASA Working Group Report. Laboratory Animals 53(5), 429–446.

The genetic and biological similarity between non-human primates and humans has ensured the continued use of primates in biomedical research where other species cannot be used. Health-monitoring programmes for non-human primates provide an approach to...

Boileau, A., Farish, M., Turner, S. P. et al. 2019. Infrared thermography of agonistic behaviour in pigs. Physiology & Behavior 210, 112637.

Infrared thermography (IRT) or thermal imaging is increasingly being used as a non-invasive method to gain information on animals' physiological and emotional state. IRT has the potential to serve as a non-invasive quantitative assessment method...

Brand, C. M., Marchant, L. F. 2019. Social hair plucking is a grooming convention in a group of captive bonobos (Pan paniscus). Primates 60(6), 487–491.

Hair plucking is observed in many captive primate species and is often characterized as an abnormal behavior. However, this behavior may be both self-directed and social and may have different etiologies. Early research in captive...

Morgan, L., Itin-Shwartz, B., Koren, L. et al. 2019. Physiological and economic benefits of abandoning invasive surgical procedures and enhancing animal welfare in swine production. Scientific Reports 9, 16093.

Food-animal welfare is a major ethical and social concern. Pork is the most consumed meat worldwide, with over a billion pigs slaughtered annually. Most of these pigs routinely undergo painful surgical procedures (surgical castration, tail...

Egelkamp, C. L., Ross, S. R. 2019. A review of zoo-based cognitive research using touchscreen interfaces. Zoo Biology 38(2), 220-235.

In the past few decades, there has been an increase in the number of zoo-based touchscreen studies of animal cognition around the world. Such studies have contributed to the field of comparative cognition despite the...

McMillan, F. D. (ed). 2019. Mental Health and Well-being in Animals (2nd ed). CABI, Wallingford, UK.

This second edition is fully revised, expanded, and comprehensively updated with the most current knowledge about the full array of mental health issues seen in animals. Written by key opinion leaders, internationally-recognized experts and specialists...

D’Eath, R. B., Jack, M., Futro, A. et al. 2018. Automatic early warning of tail biting in pigs: 3D cameras can detect lowered tail posture before an outbreak. PLOS ONE 13(4), e0194524.

Tail biting is a major welfare and economic problem for indoor pig producers worldwide. Low tail posture is an early warning sign which could reduce tail biting unpredictability. Taking a precision livestock farming approach, we...