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. 
Golledge, H., Richardson, C. (Eds.) 2024. The UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management of Laboratory and Other Research Animals (9th ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. 1040 p.

The latest edition of the seminal reference on the care and management of laboratory and research animals. The newly revised ninth edition of The UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management of Laboratory and Other...

Borthwick, E. J., Preshaw, L., Wheeler-Launder, C. et al. 2023. Stable design influences relaxation and affiliative behavior in horses during short isolation bouts. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 69–70, 1–7.

Domesticated horses are often housed in individual stables for long periods where physical contact with conspecifics is not possible. Although common, this form of stable design is known to be detrimental to horse welfare. This...

Robinson, L. M., Weiss, A. (Eds.) 2023. Nonhuman Primate Welfare: From History, Science, and Ethics to Practice. Springer, Cham, Switzerland. 671 p.

This volume reviews the broad topic of welfare in nonhuman primates under human care. Chapters detail the history of primates in captivity, ethical and legal issues surrounding the use of nonhuman primates as entertainment or...

Bartlett, A., Grinsted, L., Freeman, M. S. 2023. Behaviour, furnishing and vertical space use of captive callimico (Callimico goeldii): Implications for welfare. Animals 13(13), 2147.

Provision of optimal captive care should be supported by species-specific evidence. Callimico (Callimico goeldii) is a small South American callitrichid primate. This study sought to address gaps in species-specific knowledge and captive management research by...

Bellini, L., Schrank, M., Veladiano, I. A. et al. 2023. Retrospective comparison of the effects of laryngeal mask and endotracheal tube on some cardio-respiratory variables in pet rabbits undergoing anaesthesia for elective gonadectomy. Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 65(1), 10.

Endotracheal intubation in rabbits is challenging and supraglottic airway devices, such as laryngeal masks (LMA), represent an alternative as they are easy to insert, and do not stimulate the larynx requiring therefore a lighter plane...

Krunt, O., Zita, L., Kraus, A. et al. 2023. Effects of genotype and housing system on rabbit does’ aggressive behaviors and injuries in smallholding conditions. Animals 13(8), 1357.

The objective of the study was to investigate the effects of housing (deep litter + concrete floor vs. deep litter + ground soil with the possibility to dig burrows), and genotype (Mecklenburg or Hyplus) on...

Mauthe von Degerfeld, M., Serpieri, M., Bonaffini, G. et al. 2023. Intranasal atomization of ketamine, medetomidine and butorphanol in pet rabbits using a mucosal atomization device. Animals 13(13), 2076.

A non-invasive method of drug delivery, intranasal atomization, has shown positive results in human medicine and in some animal species. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of intranasal atomization, compared to...

Morgado, J. N., Lamonaca, E., Santeramo, F. G. et al. 2023. Effects of management strategies on animal welfare and productivity under heat stress: A synthesis. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10, 1145610.

Climate change includes different dramatic events, and among them, heat stress exposition is the strongest phenomenon affecting the livestock sector. The effects of heat stress events on animal welfare are complex and the economic impacts...

Peruga, M., Kawala, B., Sarul, M. et al. 2023. Are currently selected laboratory animals useful in the research of how female hormones influence orthodontic biomechanics? Animals 13(4), 629.

Animal testing was and remains the only method of introducing a certain treatment and medical procedure on humans. On the other hand, animals have their rights resulting from applicable legal acts, including Directive 2010/63/EU and...

Seck, M., Jobling, R., Brown, A. F. 2023. Trialling locally made, low-cost bits to improve bit-related welfare problems in cart horses: Findings from a study in Senegal. Animals 13(1), 2.

Bits used for cart horses in Senegal are typically made of recovered construction iron and often have defects related to design, shape, fit and metal quality. Consequently, there is widespread presence of bit-related oral injury...

Rooney, N. J., Baker, P. E., Blackwell, E.-J. et al. 2023. Run access, hutch size and time-of-day affect welfare-relevant behaviour and faecal corticosterone in pair-housed pet rabbits. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 262, 105919.

Although there exist several studies examining the housing needs of rabbits kept in laboratories and for meat, studies of the requirements of pet rabbits are few and focus entirely on single rabbits. Pet rabbits are...

Goswami, S., Tyagi, P. C., Malik, P. K. et al. 2023. Effects of enclosure complexity and visitor presence on the welfare of Asiatic lions. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 260, 105853.

In recent years, there has been much research into the individual effects of enclosure complexity and visitor presence on captive animal welfare. However, the inter-linkages between enclosure complexity and visitor presence and their combined influence...

Lau, A. R., Pinto, B. R., Witczak, L. R. et al. 2023. Room size and offspring presence impact pair-bonded primate affiliation. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 265, 105994.

Primates live in a variety of social groupings and vary in the expression of species-typical behaviors depending upon social conditions. Coppery titi monkeys (Plecturocebus cupreus) are pair-bonding, territorial primates often used to study neurobiology and...

Štrbenc, M., Kuhar, U., Lainšček, D. et al. 2023. Rehoming and other refinements and replacement in procedures using golden hamsters in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine research. Animals 13(16), 2616.

Effective vaccines are needed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Forty golden hamsters were inoculated with two promising vaccine candidates and eighteen animals were used in pilot trials with viral challenge. ELISA assays were performed to...

Smith, K. D., Snider, R. J., Dembiec, D. P. et al. 2023. Effects of a modern exhibit design on captive tiger welfare. Zoo Biology 42(3), 371–382.

Offering captive animals larger, more complex spaces are thought to benefit their welfare. To this end, some zoos use trail systems linked to several enclosures. Since little is known about the effects of such designs...

Wei, H., Geng, L., Shang, X. et al. 2023. Background color preference of amphibian Rana dybowskii. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 268, 106079.

Background color may affect the welfare of the brown frog Rana dybowskii in captivity. To evaluate the perching platform color and feeding platform color preferences of brown frogs at day and night, a total of...

Jimenez, I. A., Craney, M. C., Painter, M. C. et al. 2023. Behavioral evaluation of laboratory-housed ferrets (Mustela putorius furo) in different enclosure sizes. JAALAS 62(5), 382–394.

The domestic ferret (Mustela putorius furo) is a common research model for infectious disease and behavioral studies. Ferrets are social animals that are commonly pair-housed. The United States has no species-specific regulatory standards for housing...

Cargill, B. M., Benato, L., Rooney, N. J. 2022. A survey exploring the impact of housing and husbandry on pet snake welfare. Animal Welfare 31(2), 193-208.

Snake ownership is popular; however, housing and care may not always satisfy the animal's welfare needs. For example, snakes are often kept in environmental conditions that restrict their ability to stretch out fully or move...

Nicolis, I. N., Beale, C. N., Bidot, W. A. et al. 2022. Performance and consistency of circulating warm water blankets for rodents. JAALAS 61(1), 96-100.

General anesthesia as used for rodent research can have adverse effects on physiologic mechanisms. Thermoregulation is often greatly inhibited, with resultant deleterious effects on cardiac and respiratory function. These potential effects can be mitigated by...

Buckmaster, C. L., Levesque, D., LaFollette, M. et al. 2022. Five hot topics in refinement of nonhuman primate neuroscience research. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 10(1) (January/February), 24-26.

Members of the North American 3Rs Collaborative (NA3RsC) refinement initiative have chosen to summarize developments in five hot topics of interest: 1. Tips for welfare-friendly transport, chairing, and restraint; 2. Guidance on refining food and...

Dancer, A. M. M., Díez-León, M., Bizley, J. K. et al. 2022. Housing and environmental enrichment of the domestic ferret: A multi-sector survey. Animals 12(9), 1065.

Ferrets (Mustela putorius furo) are kept and used in multiple sectors of society, but little is known about how they are housed and what environmental enrichment (EE) they may benefit from. We aimed to help...

Johansson, Ö, Kachel, S., Weckworth, B. 2022. Guidelines for telemetry studies on snow leopards. Animals 12(13), 1663.

Animal-borne tracking devices have generated a wealth of new knowledge, allowing us to better understand, manage and conserve species. Fitting such tracking devices requires that animals are captured and often chemically immobilized. Such procedures cause...

Torcivia, C., McDonnell, S. 2022. Efficacy of lidocaine topical solution in reducing discomfort reaction of horses to intramuscular vaccination. Animals 12(13), 1659.

Vaccinations via intramuscular injection are a key component of preventative health care in horses. Development of problematic behavioral aversion to injections is quite common. Our clinical impression has been that topical anesthetic applied to injection...

Knaebe, B., Weiss, C. C., Zimmermann, J. et al. 2022. The promise of behavioral tracking systems for advancing primate animal welfare. Animals 12(13), 1648.

Recent years have witnessed major advances in the ability of computerized systems to track the positions of animals as they move through large and unconstrained environments. These systems have so far been a great boon...

Winther Christensen, J., Gargulak Andersen, A., Nymark Skovbo, K. et al. 2022. Shelter use by horses during summer in relation to weather conditions and horsefly (Tabanidae) prevalence. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 253, 105676.

National legislation requires shelter access for horses kept outside during winter, whereas there are no requirements for shelter access to provide shade and a refuge from biting insects during summer. This study investigated use of...