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. 
Moser, J., Burla, J.-B., Gygax, L. 2019. Executing specific foraging behaviours does not represent a general goal state of foraging in dry sows (Sus scrofa). Behavioural Processes 164, 115-122.

Intensively housed domestic pigs (Sus scrofa) have little opportunity to perform diverse foraging behaviour though they still seem strongly motivated to do so. Here, we investigated whether the execution of specific behaviours may in itself...

Animal Welfare Institute. 2019. Let’s get serious about animal play. AWI Quarterly 68(3) Fall, 19.

This article describes the importance of providing laboratory animals with opportunities to engage in play, and provides a few practical ideas for how to do this.

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...

Arnaud-James, L. 2019. The effects of structural and feeding enrichments on captive western hoolock gibbons at the rehabilitation and release centre HURO Programme, India. Canopy 20(1), 15-18.

The aim of this study was to assess the impacts of different enrichments in various enclosures in a gibbon rehabilitation centre in the northeast of India. The results show a greater interaction with the feeding...

White, K. 2019. Effects of captivity on the activity budgets of lar gibbons (Hylobates lar). Canopy 20(1), 43-45.

The keeping of gibbons in a captive environment and recreating an appropriate habitat is essential to enable them to exhibit species-specific behaviour. This research was designed to provide baseline data on the activity budgets of...

Weller, J. E., Camerlink, I., Turner, S. P. et al. 2019. Playful pigs: Early life play-fighting experience influences later life contest dynamics. Animal Behaviour 158, 269-279.

Animal contests are costly and predicted to be won by the individual with the higher resource-holding potential (RHP). Weight is often used a proxy for RHP; however, victory does not always go to the heaviest...

Špinka, M. 2019. Animal agency, animal awareness and animal welfare. Animal Welfare 28(1), 11–20.

In nature, animals need to actively engage with the environment in order to prosper in survival and reproduction. Hence, agency is a central adaptive characteristic of animal life. In this paper, I propose that from...

Costa, R., Sousa, C., Llorente, M. 2018. Assessment of environmental enrichment for different primate species under low budget: A case study. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 21(2), 185-199.

The 2011 European Union Zoo Inquiry presented evidence that most zoos fail to achieve adequate levels of nonhuman animal welfare. Appropriate environmental enrichment (EE) can play a role in the promotion of welfare. However, financial...

Unakafov, A. M., Möller, S., Kagan, I. et al. 2018. Using imaging photoplethysmography for heart rate estimation in non-human primates. PLOS ONE 13(8), e0202581.

For humans and for non-human primates heart rate is a reliable indicator of an individual’s current physiological state, with applications ranging from health checks to experimental studies of cognitive and emotional state. In humans, changes...

Ekesbo, I., Gunnarsson, S. 2018. Farm Animal Behaviour: Characteristics for Assessment and Welfare (2nd ed). CABI, Wallingford, UK.

Completely updated and revised, and with a new author team, this second edition of Farm Animal Behaviour continues to provide essential information on normal and stereotypic behaviors in a wide variety of farm animals to...

Prior, H., Bottomly, A., Champéroux, P. et al. 2016. Social housing of non-rodents during cardiovascular recordings in safety pharmacology and toxicology studies. Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods 81, 75-87.

Introduction: The Safety Pharmacology Society (SPS) and National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) conducted a survey and workshop in 2015 to define current industry practices relating to housing...

Westin, R., Hultgren, J., Algers, B. 2015. Strategic use of straw increases nest building in loose housed farrowing sows. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 166, 63-70.

In spite of domestication, sows are still genetically programmed to perform nesting behaviour close to farrowing. In order to facilitate nest building, a method for a strategic use of large quantities of straw has been...

Nääs, I. A., Garcia, R. G., Caldara, F. R. 2015. Infrared thermal image for assessing animal health and welfare. Journal of Animal Behaviour and Biometeorology 2(3), 66-72.

Infrared thermal imaging is a non-destructive testing technology that can be used to determine the superficial temperature of objects. This technology has an increasing use in detecting diseases and distress in animal husbandry within the...

Andersen, I. L., Vasdal, G., Pedersen, L. J. 2014. Nest building and posture changes and activity budgets of gilts housed in pens and crates. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 159, 29-33.

The aim of the present work was to study nest building, posture changes and the overall activity budget of gilts in pens vs. crates. Twenty-three HB gilts (high piglet survival day 5) and 21 LB...

Horback, K. 2014. Nosing around: Play in pigs. Animal Behavior and Cognition 2(2), 186.

The predominant method of measuring welfare in swine focuses on overt physical ailments, such as skin lesions, lameness, and body condition. An alternative metric for assessing welfare in swine can be to measure the frequency...

Bergman, T. J., Sheehan, M. J. 2013. Social knowledge and signal in primates. American Journal of Primatology 75(7), 683-694.

Primates are notable for having a rich and detailed understanding of their social environment and there has been great interest in the evolution and function of social knowledge in primates. Indeed, primates have been shown...

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...

Camerlink, I., Bijma, P., Kemp, B. et al. 2012. Relationship between growth rate and oral manipulation, social nosing, and aggression in finishing pigs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 142(1-2), 11-17.

Pigs may affect each other's health, welfare and productivity through their behaviour. The effect of a pig on the growth rate of its pen mates is partly heritable and is referred to as its social...

Rault, J.-L. 2012. Friends with benefits: Social support and its relevance for farm animal welfare. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 136(1), 1-14.

Despite growing interest in promoting positive welfare, rather than just alleviating poor welfare, potential measures of good welfare, and means to provide it, have remained elusive. In humans social support improves stress-coping abilities, health, and...

Buijs, S., Maertens, L., Tuyttens, F. A. M. et al. 2011. Glucocorticoid metabolites in rabbit faeces - Influence of environmental enrichment and cage size. Physiology & Behavior 104(3), 469-473.

The concentration of glucocorticoid metabolites (GCM) in rabbit faeces has been suggested as a non-invasive indicator of stress. In the present study, GCM concentrations were measured in faeces of fattening rabbits kept in groups of...

Miller, S. 2011. Swine enrichment. Enrichment Record 6, 10-13.

In this review, swine behavior and various methods of enrichment are discussed. The review is based on both published journal articles and anecdotal successful enrichment methods that were shared recently on CompMed Listserve.

Hawkins, P., Burn, C., Hurst, J. et al. 2011. Report of the 2010 RSPCA/UFAW rodent welfare group meeting - The effect of husbandry on welfare and promoting good practice. Animal Technology and Welfare 10(2), 105-114.

The RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group holds a one-day meeting every autumn so that its members can discuss current welfare research, exchange views on rodent welfare issues and share experiences of the implementation of the 3Rs...

Williams-Fritze, M. J., Altieri, J. A., Clough, C. et al. 2010. Modification of a dog cage for use as an exercise unit for rabbits. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 703 (Abstract #P70).

The Guide for the Care and Use of Animals and the USDA Animal Welfare Regulations (AWR) outline minimum space requirements for laboratory animals, including rabbits. These documents encourage housing of animals in enclosures that allow...

Van Dyk, A., Rickers, M. 2010. A technique for single-person oral gavage in rabbits. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 749 (Abstract #P215).

The physiologic and anatomic structure of rabbits can cause high mortality rates in rabbit oral gavage. Rabbits are capable of a wide variety of jaw movement due to 3 jaw-closing muscle groups (masseter, temporalis, pterygoid)...

Hawkins, P., Hubrecht, R., Buckwell, A. et al. 2008. Refining Rabbit Care: A Resource for Those Working With Rabbits in Research. UFAW/RSPCA: Southwater, UK, 27 pp.

The report sets out how to provide: optimal enclosure characteristicsand size; social housing; solid flooring and substrate; raised areas; refuges; gnawing objects and dietary enrichment; positive interaction with humans; toys and objects to manipulate; for...