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. 
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...

Spain, M., Pearson, C., Rosenblatt, A. E. 2023. Social structure and habitat design affect the impact of a novel feeding enrichment for alligators. Zoo Biology 42(3), 383–389.

Providing enrichment that expands the range of behavioral opportunities associated with food acquisition and environmental exploration is an important contributing factor to the well-being of zoo animals. These behaviors can be difficult to promote in...

Van Damme, L. G. W., Ampe, B., Delezie, E. et al. 2023. Social behaviour and personality profiles of breeding does housed part-time in group. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 267, 106064.

Housing breeding female rabbits in multi-litter instead of single-litter cages allows for more natural behaviour and social contact with conspecifics. Hierarchy fights among does, however, inhibit uptake on farms. Past focus on high reproductive performances...

Uskenov, R., Mirmanov, A., Tretyakov, I. et al. 2023. Automatic cattle weighing on pastures with behavioral analysis during drinking. Journal of Animal Behaviour Biometeorology 11(3), e2023020.

Livestock body weight (BW) and average daily weight gain (ADG) are primary indicators of beef cattle productivity. The conventional method of weighing involves moving the cattle to a weighing location, which is labor-intensive, stressful for...

Leeds, A., Riley, A., Terry, M. et al. 2022. Out of sight, out of mind or just something in the way? Visual barriers do not reduce intraspecific agonism in an all-male group of Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus). Animals 12(3), 269.

Here, we evaluated if visual barriers could reduce intraspecific agonism in an all-male group of Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus) living in a zoo. Crocodiles were monitored for nearly 100 h, and four “hotspots” of aggression...

Lindner, E. E., Gingerich, K. N., Burke, K. C. et al. 2022. Effects of social housing on dairy calf social bonding. Animals 12(7), 821.

Social housing for dairy calves has a range of benefits for social development, yet there is limited understanding of how social bonds form early in life. We characterized effects of early life social contact on...

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...

Zhang, C., Juniper, D. T., Meagher, R. K. 2022. Effects of physical enrichment and pair housing before weaning on growth, behaviour and cognitive ability of calves after weaning and regrouping. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 249, 105606.

Housing unweaned calves individually in barren environments negatively affects their growth, cognitive ability, and adaptability to environmental changes in later life. Social housing has been shown to improve those aspects, whereas physical environmental enrichment has...

Ahmadi, F., Ghasemi, E., Alikhani, M. et al. 2022. Effects of group housing and incremental hay supplementation in calf starters at different ages on growth performance, behavior, and health. Scientific Reports 12(1), 3190.

The present study examined the effects of age at group housing and age at incremental hay supplementation in calf starters from 7.5 to 15% (dry matter, DM) and their interaction on growth performance, behavior, health...

Wilson, A. M., Wright, T. C., Cant, J. P. et al. 2022. Preferences of dairy cattle for supplemental light-emitting diode lighting in the resting area. Animals 12(15), 1894.

Light from the environment is important for vision and regulating various biological processes. Providing supplemental lighting in the stall area could allow for individually targeted or group-level control of light. This study aimed to determine...

de Andrade Kogima, P., Diesel, T. A., Vieira, F. M. C. et al. 2022. The welfare of dairy cows in pasture, free stall, and compost barn management systems in a Brazilian subtropical region. Animals 12(17), 2215.

The effect of milk production systems on the welfare of dairy cows has been studied worldwide, but studies that compare pasture-based, compost barn, and free stall systems, according to animal welfare, are more scarce. In...

Thomas, A. D., Orsel, K., Cortés, J. A. et al. 2022. Objective determination and quantification of pain and inflammation associated with digital dermatitis in feedlot cattle. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 253, 105684.

Digital dermatitis (DD) is an infectious skin disease in cattle that causes pain and discomfort, significantly impacting animal welfare. Although DD lesions are painful and prone to bleeding when touched, pain resulting from DD has...

Berthel, R., Simmler, M., Dohme-Meier, F. et al. 2022. Dairy sheep and goats prefer the single components over the mixed ration. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 1017669.

Mixed rations provide ruminants with a balanced diet by aiming to prevent selective feeding. However, this is a natural behavior of sheep and goats based on their dietary needs and the nutritional properties of feedstuffs...

Lee, V. E., Arnott, G., Turner, S. P. 2022. Social behavior in farm animals: Applying fundamental theory to improve animal welfare. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 932217.

A fundamental understanding of behavior is essential to improving the welfare of billions of farm animals around the world. Despite living in an environment managed by humans, farm animals are still capable of making important...

Eyre, R., Trehiou, M., Marshall, E. et al. 2022. Aging cats prefer warm food. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 47, 86-92.

The aim of this study was to determine if meal temperature of cat wet food affected the feeding preference of aging (>7 years of age) domestic short-haired cats. We examined a chunks in gravy product...

Schnaider, M. A., Heidemann, M. S., Pescatori Silva, A. H. et al. 2022. Vocalization and other behaviors indicating pain in beef calves during the ear tagging procedure. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 47, 93-98.

Vocalization and other behavior signals are used as tools to assess animal welfare in beef calves. This paper aimed to compare vocal parameters and behavior signals expressed by beef calves submitted either to ear tagging...

Schnaider, M. A., Heidemann, M. S., Silva, A. H. P. et al. 2022. Vocalization and other behaviors as indicators of emotional valence: The case of cow-calf separation and reunion in beef cattle. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 49, 28-35.

Vocalization may communicate the emotional state in vocal animals. We aimed to describe and compare vocalization and other behavioral signs of cow-calf pairs in emotionally negative and positive situations, and the potential influence of genetic...

Mastellone, V., Musco, N., Infascelli, F. et al. 2022. Higher forage:concentrate ratio and space availability may favor positive behaviors in dairy cows. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 51, 16-22.

A novel livestock management system (LMS) for dairy cows mainly based on a high forage:concentrate ratio, no silage, and large outdoor paddocks, has been introduced in Italy during the last five years. It was proved...

Schnaider, M. A., Heidemann, M. S., Silva, A. H. P. et al. 2022. Cat vocalization in aversive and pleasant situations. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 55-56, 71-78.

Vocalization may transmit information from the emitting animal, including information about his or her emotional state. This study aimed to compare the vocal and the behavioral responses of domestic cats during an aversive and a...

Bučková, K., Moravcsíková, Á., Šárová, R. et al. 2022. Indication of social buffering in disbudded calves. Scientific Reports 12(1), 13348.

Most dairy calves are housed individually in early ontogeny but social housing has positive effects on calf welfare including an advantage of social buffering, i.e., when negative effects of stress are mitigated through social support...

Cellier, M., Nielsen, B. L., Duvaux-Ponter, C. et al. 2022. Browse or browsing: Investigating goat preferences for feeding posture, feeding height and feed type. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 1032631.

Goats naturally browse different forages in various postures; this differs from typical farm practice, thus there are opportunities to improve goat welfare by understanding what and how they like to eat. We investigated if feeding...

Kulyar, M. F.-A., Ashfaq, K., Aqib, A. I. et al. 2022. Enhanced healing activity of manuka honey and nitrofurazone composite in full-thickness burn wounds in the rabbit model. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 875629.

Burns cause many significant changes in metabolism and inflammatory reactions, leading to poor regeneration in animals and humans. A list of medicines to treat burns is available in the market. But due to the high...

Sonne, C., Alstrup, A. K. O., Pertoldi, C. et al. 2022. Cortisol in manure from cattle enclosed with nofence virtual fencing. Animals 12(21), 3017.

To increase the efficiency and geographic expansion of nature conservation, large grazers have recently been used, either in the form of wild hoof-bearing animals or as domesticated ruminants including cattle. Using physical fencing limits migrating...

Palacio, S., Adam, S., Bergeron, R. et al. 2022. Minor stall modifications and outdoor access can help improve dairy cow welfare in tie-stalls. Canadian Journal of Animal Science 103(1), 1–14.

Tie-stalls are the most confining method of housing for dairy cows and remain commonly used to house cows in many countries. Finding methods to improve animal welfare through housing modifications and alternative management strategies are...

Fieschi-Méric, L., Ellis, C., Servini, F. et al. 2022. An improvement in enclosure design can positively impact welfare, reduce aggressiveness and stabilise hierarchy in captive Galapagos giant tortoises. Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens 3(4), 499–512.

The interest in the welfare of zoo animals, from both the public and the scientific community, has long been biased towards mammals. However, growing evidence of the complex behavioural repertoires of less charismatic animals, such...