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. 
Elwood, R. W. 2023. Behavioural indicators of pain and suffering in arthropods and might pain bite back? Animals 13(16), 2602.

Pain in response to tissue damage functions to change behaviour so that further damage is minimised whereas healing and survival are promoted. This paper focuses on the behavioural criteria that match the function to ask...

Frigeri, K. D. M., Deniz, M., Damasceno, F. A. et al. 2023. Effect of heat stress on the behavior of lactating cows housed in compost barns: A systematic review. Applied Sciences 13(4), 2044.

In this study, we performed a systematic review to assess the effect of thermal stress on the behavior of lactating cows housed in compost barns. Peer-reviewed articles written in English that evaluated the effect of...

Gaworski, M. 2023. Behavior of cows in the lying area when the exit gates in the pens are opened: How many cows are forced to get up to go to the milking parlor? Animals 13(18), 2882.

Equipping a farm with a milking parlor requires moving groups of cows from their pens to the part of the barn where milking takes place. The task of moving cows, carried out two or three...

Goma, A. A., Uddin, J., Kieson, E. 2023. Lateralised behavioural responses in livestock to environmental stressors: Implications for using infrared thermography to assess welfare conditions. Animals 13(23), 3663.

Lateralised behavioural responses to environmental stressors have become more frequently used as indicators of social welfare in animals. These lateralised behavioural responses are under the control of asymmetrical brain functions as part of the primary...

Koperski, P. 2023. It is not only data—Freshwater invertebrates misused in biological monitoring. Animals 13(16), 2570.

The article presents and discusses the issues of the use of free-living invertebrates to assess the ecological status of freshwater environments with different methods of biological monitoring. Invertebrates are excluded from ethical consideration in the...

Lei, M. C., Félix, L., Cardoso, R. et al. 2023. Non-invasive biomarkers in saliva and eye infrared thermography to assess the stress response of calves during transport. Animals 13(14), 2311.

Animal transport is currently a stressful procedure. Therefore, animal-based indicators are needed for reliable and non-invasive welfare assessment. Saliva is a biospecimen with potential validity for the determination of cortisol and oxidative stress, although its...

Mincu, M., Nicolae, I., Gavojdian, D. 2023. Infrared thermography as a non-invasive method for evaluating stress in lactating dairy cows during isolation challenges. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.
Olczak, K., Penar, W., Nowicki, J. et al. 2023. The role of sound in livestock farming—Selected aspects. Animals 13(14), 2307.

To ensure the optimal living conditions of farm animals, it is essential to understand how their senses work and the way in which they perceive their environment. Most animals have a different hearing range compared...

Ospina Rios, S. L., Lee, C., Andrewartha, S. J. et al. 2023. A pilot study on the feasibility of an extended suckling system for pasture-based dairies. Animals 13(16), 2571.

This study investigated cow-calf productivity in a 10-week, pasture-based, extended suckling system featuring part-time cow-calf contact and once-a-day milking. A total of 30 dairy cows and their calves were assigned to two treatments: (1) cow...

Otten, N. D., Skarbye, A. P., Krogh, M. A. et al. 2023. Monitoring bovine dairy calf health and related risk factors in the first three months of rearing. Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 65(1), 45.

Rearing replacement heifers is pivotal for the dairy industry and is associated with high input costs for the preweaned calves, due to their higher susceptibility to diseases. Ensuring calf health and viability calls for systematic...

Poudel, S., Fike, J. H., Wright, L. et al. 2023. Non-invasive techniques reveal heifer response to fescue endophyte type in grazing studies. Animals 13(14), 2373.

Cattle grazing tall fescue (Schedonorus arundinaceous) infected with wild-type endophytes (WE) leads to a syndrome commonly known as fescue toxicosis. Replacing WE tall fescue with a novel endophyte-infected (NE) tall fescue can mitigate this problem...

Schneidewind, S. J., Meemken, D., Langforth, S. 2023. Measures and penalties for animal welfare violations at german abattoirs: A compilation of current recommendations and practices. Animals 13(18), 2916.

Protecting animal welfare during preslaughter handling and slaughter is an important ethical concern with growing importance to consumers. However, animal welfare violations in abattoirs remain a serious problem, and the enforcement of relevant laws and...

Silva, A. C. de S., Arce, A. I. C., Arteaga, H. et al. 2023. Improving behavior monitoring of free-moving dairy cows using noninvasive wireless EEG approach and digital signal processing techniques. Applied Sciences 13(19), 10722.

Electroencephalography (EEG) is the most common method to access brain information. Techniques to monitor and extract brain signal characteristics in farm animals are not as developed as those for humans and laboratory animals. The objective...

Trujanovic, R., Rohrbach, H. 2023. Ultrasound-guided block of the sciatic and the femoral nerves in rabbits—A descriptive anatomical study. Animals 13(14), 2393.

The rabbit is a popular animal model for human biomechanical research involving surgery on the hind limb. Mortality is higher in rabbits when undergoing general anesthesia compared to dogs and cats. Moreover, due to their...

Wang, C., Yang, C., Zeng, Y. et al. 2023. GnRH-immunocastration: An alternative method for male animal surgical castration. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.
Brown, A. 2023. Aced it! Performing large volume survival bleeds in rabbits. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 11(3) (May/June), 44-46.

New Zealand White rabbits are commonly used for polyclonal antibody production, which can require collecting no more than 10% of total body weight every two weeks (approximately 20 ml of blood for a 4 kg...

Aigueperse, N., Boyer, V., Vasseur, E. 2023. How outing conditions relate to the motivation of movement-restricted cattle to access an outdoor exercise yard. Behavioural Processes 213, 104957.

Assessing animal motivation to access a given resource is one method available to evaluate what to provide in the living environments of captive animals. Providing increased opportunities for movement can be seen as an important...

Benato, L., Murrell, J., Rooney, N. 2023. Determining a cut-off point for intervention analgesia in rabbits using the Bristol Rabbit Pain Scale. Veterinary Record 193(5), e2995.

Background: The objective of this study was to determine the threshold of the Bristol Rabbit Pain Scale (BRPS) indicating the need for intervention analgesia. Methods: Fourteen members of veterinary staff were recruited to rate rabbits...

Costa, R. S., Ciotti-McClallen, M., Tilley, R. et al. 2023. Intramuscular alfaxalone with or without buprenorphine or hydromorphone provides sedation with minimal adverse effects in healthy rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in a randomized blinded controlled trial. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 261(2), 223–228.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effects of alfaxalone administered IM with or without buprenorphine or hydromorphone in healthy rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus). ANIMALS 24 male rabbits undergoing elective orchiectomy between August 21, 2021, and November 6, 2021...

González-de-la-Vara, M., De Anda, F., Romano, M. C. 2023. Dead newborn calf affects behavior, cortisol, milk production, and reproductive performance in primiparous dairy cows. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 66, 20–28.

Little is known about the long-term effects of stillbirth on dairy cows. This study compared the behavior, serum and hair cortisol concentrations, production and quality of milk, and reproductive performance in primiparous dairy cows that...

Hube, D., van Meegen, C., Herbrandt, S. et al. 2023. Hair corticosterone concentration as a potential stress marker in pet rabbits. Veterinary Record 193(9), e3464.

Background As a prey species, rabbits tend to hide their illnesses and injuries. Consequently, pet rabbit owners often do not notice that their pet may be suffering. Methods Data on the housing and health of...

Karaskiewicz, C. L., Ramirez, M., Bales, K. L. 2023. Physiological and behavioral effects of hormonal contraceptive treatment in captive, pair-bonded primates (Plecturocebus cupreus). JAALAS 62(6), 494–501.

Hormonal contraception is an effective, reversible tool for managing birth rates in humans and nonhuman animals alike. However, manipulating reproductive hormones has behavioral consequences that can impact social and sexual behavior between conspecifics. First, we...

Latini, L., Nascetti, G., Grignani, G. et al. 2023. Limited holding space reduces growth and behavioural performance in juvenile European lobsters. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 266, 106013.

Conservation aquaculture offers important tools to secure sustainable animal supplies for human use. However, intensive aquaculture practices are increasingly raising concerns about the welfare conditions of farmed animals, which typically face high mortality rates due...

Nogues, E., Ede, T., Woodroffe, R. E. et al. 2023. Can a social partner alleviate conditioned place aversion caused by isolation and pain in dairy calves? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 269, 106092.

Social buffering occurs when the presence of a partner mitigates the stress response of an individual. In two experiments, we assessed the effects of social buffering in dairy calves, with and without a known conspecific...

Santos, R. V., Bhatt, S., Foote, S. et al. 2023. Method of measuring effects of study procedures in single and pair housed New Zealand White rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus). Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods 119, 107204.

Social housing of laboratory rabbits is encouraged and thought to improve animal welfare due to the social nature of this species. However, there is limited published information comparing the physiologic and cardiovascular (CV) effects of...