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. 
Coda, K. A., Fortman, J. D., García, K. D. 2020. Behavioral effects of cage size and environmental enrichment in New Zealand white rabbits. JAALAS 59(4), 356-364.

One of the goals of environmental enrichment is to encourage species-typical behaviors, while discouraging abnormal behaviors or stereotypies. Assessing the effectiveness of various enrichment modalities can be challenging, particularly for prey species such as rabbits...

Coventry, C. 2020. Positive reinforcement training as physiotherapy for a brown capuchin (Sapajus apella). RATEL (Journal of the Association of British and Irish Wild Animal Keepers) 47(2), 16-17.

Physiotherapy can be used to treat an animal following surgery, to help correcting abnormal gait and for treating tendon, bone or ligament damage. […] Of course, an animal can’t just be given a set of...

Rojas, D., Broom, D. M., Orihuela, A. et al. 2020. Effects of human-animal relationship on animal productivity and welfare. Journal of Animal Behaviour and Biometeorology 8(3), 196-205.

This is a literature review of the effects of humans' relationships with farm animals on animal productivity and welfare, including the following topics: definition of the concept and description of different tests that have been...

Da Silva Maciel de Souza, J. C., Alves, L. K. S., Guimarães, E. B. B. et al. 2020. Flavored sisal ropes as environmental enrichment for nursery piglets. Journal of Animal Behaviour and Biometeorology 8(4), 308-312.

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the behavior of piglets in the nursery phase in the presence of pure sisal ropes, soaked with different flavors as a means of environmental enrichment. Sixty-four...

Blanchett, M., Finegan, E., Atkinson, J. 2020. The effects of increasing visitor and noise levels on birds within a free-flight aviary examined through enclosure use and behavior. Animal Behavior and Cognition 7(1), 49–69.

Visitors in a zoo environment have the potential to impact the animals that they are viewing in a variety of ways. Recently, there have been suggestions that free-range enclosures, where visitors can walk directly through...

Estien, C., O’Connell, C., Francis, X. et al. 2020. Temporary behavioral responses to playbacks by a pest parrot and implications for management. Animal Behavior and Cognition 9(4), 363–384.

Human-wildlife interactions continue to increase due to anthropogenic disturbances, with some interactions resulting in conflict. Leveraging a taxa’s bias for a particular sensory cue is a promising management avenue for reducing the potential and realized...

Luo, L., Reimert, I., Graat, E. A. M. et al. 2020. Effects of early life and current housing on sensitivity to reward loss in a successive negative contrast test in pigs. Animal Cognition 23(1), 121–130.

Animals in a negative affective state seem to be more sensitive to reward loss, i.e. an unexpected decrease in reward size. The aim of this study was to investigate whether early-life and current enriched vs...

Pedersen, I. J., Forkman, B. 2019. Improving leg health in broiler chickens: A systematic review of the effect of environmental enrichment. Animal Welfare 28(2), 215-230.

Leg problems are highly prevalent in modern broiler production and provision of environmental enrichment could be a strategy to improve leg health. Different types of environmental enrichment have undergone evaluation. Our objective was to conduct...

Greenwood, E. C., van Wettere, W. H. E. J., Rayner, J. et al. 2019. Provision point-source materials stimulates play in sows but does not affect aggression at regrouping. Animals 9(1), 8.

When sows are mixed into groups, hierarchies form and resulting aggression and stress can affect production and welfare. This study determined the effect of providing point-source materials on aggressive and play behaviors in gestating sows...

Giuliotti, L., Benvenuti, M. N., Giannarelli, A. et al. 2019. Effect of different environment enrichments on behaviour and social interactions in growing pigs. Animals 9(3), 101.

Background: Pigs are active animals that require a suitable environment to be able to express their exploratory behaviour. The aim of the present study was to compare the effects of different environmental enrichments on the...

Beaudoin, J.-M., Bergeron, R., Devillers, N. et al. 2019. Growing pigs’ interest in enrichment objects with different characteristics and cleanliness. Animals 9(3), 85.

Enrichment objects can be a practical way to provide rooting and chewing material to growing pigs, on which they can express species-specific behaviors. The challenge is to provide enrichment objects that will satisfy pigs’ behavioral...

Blackie, N., de Sousa, M. 2019. The use of garlic oil for olfactory enrichment increases the use of ropes in weaned pigs. Animals 9(4), 148.

Pig producers are required to provide environmental enrichment to provide pigs the opportunity to perform investigative and manipulative behaviours (EU directive 2001/93/EC). Preventing enrichment from losing its novelty and decreasing the rate at which animals...

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...

Decina, C., Berke, O., van Staaveren, N. et al. 2019. An investigation of associations between management and feather damage in Canadian laying hens housed in furnished cages. Animals 9(4), 135.

Feather pecking is a continuous welfare challenge in the housing of egg-laying hens. Canada is currently making the transition from conventional cages to alternative housing systems. However, feather damage (FD) among laying hens due to...

Wallgren, T., Larsen, A., Lundeheim, N. et al. 2019. Implication and impact of straw provision on behaviour, lesions and pen hygiene on commercial farms rearing undocked pigs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 210, 26-37.

According to the European Union Council Directive 2008/120EC, measures to minimise the risk for tail biting shall be taken before practicing tail docking, e.g. provision of manipulable material. Still, >90% of the pigs within EU...

Bensoussan, S., Tigeot, R., Lemasson, A. et al. 2019. Domestic piglets (Sus scrofa domestica) are attentive to human voice and able to discriminate some prosodic features. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 210, 38-45.

Vocal communication is of major social importance in pigs. Their auditory sensitivity goes beyond the intraspecific level; studies have shown that domestic pigs are sensitive to and can learn to recognise human voices. The question...

Baxter, M., O’Connell, N. E. 2019. Does grouping environmental enrichments together affect the way they are used by commercially housed broiler chickens? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 210, 52-59.

Identifying the most attractive ways of presenting environmental enrichments in commercial broiler housing may encourage use and optimise their effectiveness. This study investigated the effect of grouping straw bales (SB), oat hulls (OH; as a...

Moroki, Y. 2019. Sham dustbathing in cages by subordinate hens is increased by a partition providing isolation. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 210, 68-72.

Subordinate hens express less sham dustbathing in cages than higher ranked hens, their bouts often being disturbed by a higher ranked hen. However, seeing conspecifics seems to encourage this behaviour by hens. So to avoid...

Colson, V., Mure, A., Valotaire, C. et al. 2019. A novel emotional and cognitive approach to welfare phenotyping in rainbow trout exposed to poor water quality. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 210, 103-112.

Recent scientific evidence for fish sentience has stressed the need for novel sentience-based detection tools of fish welfare impairment in commercial farms. In order to mimic a well-characterised stress situation, rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) were...

Dalmau, A., Areal, B., Machado, S. et al. 2019. Does the location of enrichment material affect behavior and dirtiness in growing female pigs? Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 22(2), 116-126.

The objective of this study was to investigate if female growing pigs spend similar amounts of time exploring a wooden stick as they do exploring enrichment material regardless of its proximity to the feeder. Forty-eight...

Frediani, M. H., Pizzutto, C. S., Alves, M. B. R. et al. 2019. Effect of simple and low-cost enrichment items on behavioral, clinical, and productive variables of caged laying hens. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 22(2), 139-148.

Housing layers in battery cages is a practice still used by many countries but it has been criticized because of its influence on behavioral repertoire of birds. We investigated whether simple and affordable enrichment devices...

Vasdal, G., Vas, J., Newberry, R. C. et al. 2019. Effects of environmental enrichment on activity and lameness in commercial broiler production. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 22(2), 197-205.

The aim of this pilot study was to investigate the effects of commercially applied environmental enrichments on behavior and lameness in broilers. Two consecutive flocks of broilers were observed at 16 days and 30 days...

Yi, R., Wang, C., Zhang, X. et al. 2019. Maternal behavior, posture change, and production performance of lactating sows housed in an enriched environment. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 22(3), 298-308.

This study aimed to evaluate whether adding straw to a loose-farrowing house promotes maternal functions and production. Forty-eight sows (Landrace× Large White) were housed in either a farrowing pen without straw (C, n = 24)...

Arechavala-Lopez, P., Saraiva, J. L. 2019. Welfare of Cultured and Experimental Fishes. Basel, Switzerland: MDPI, 132 pages.

This open access book is a printed edition of the Special Issue on Welfare of Cultured and Experimental Fishes that was published in the journal Fishes. The PDF is free for download.

Sirovica, L. V., Creamer, M., Horback, K. M. 2019. Preference for and behavioural response to environmental enrichment in a small population of sexually mature, commercial boars. Animal Welfare 28(3), 271-278.

An increasing public concern over the welfare of livestock species is motivating more producers to consider changes to production practices. Providing environmental enrichment for intensively housed animals is one such potentially welfare-enhancing change. The goal...