Refinement Database

Database on Refinement of Housing, Husbandry, Care, and Use of Animals in Research

This database, created in 2000, is updated every three months with newly published scientific articles, books, and other publications related to improving or safeguarding the welfare of animals used in research.

Links to the full text for publications that appear in open access journals or are published on the AWI website are provided under the abstract.

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 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. Most publications older than 2010 can only be searched by keyword. 
Escobedo-Bonilla, C. M., Quiros-Rojas, N. M., Rudín-Salazar, E. 2022. Rehabilitation of marine turtles and welfare improvement by application of environmental enrichment strategies. Animals 12(3), 282.
Sea turtles perform various ecological services in several marine environments and are considered architects of the marine landscape. At present, they are endangered species due to anthropogenic threats, pollution and degradation of marine habitats. These...
Rowe, E., Mullan, S. 2022. Advancing a “good life” for farm animals: Development of resource tier frameworks for on-farm assessment of positive welfare for beef cattle, broiler chicken and pigs. Animals 12(5), 565.
There is increasing recognition that farm animal welfare standards should ensure positive welfare, as well as prevent negative welfare. Resources that are valued by an animal and that provide opportunities to engage in motivated behaviours...
Reyes, F. S., Gimenez, A. R., Anderson, K. M. et al. 2022. Impact of stationary brush quantity on brush use in group-housed dairy heifers. Animals 12(8), 972.
Our objectives were to evaluate the effect of stationary brush quantity on brush use and competition in weaned dairy heifers naïve to brushes. Sixty-three Holstein heifers (95 ± 5.7 days old) were housed in groups...
Diggins, R., Burrie, R., Ariel, E. et al. 2022. A review of welfare indicators for sea turtles undergoing rehabilitation, with emphasis on environmental enrichment. Animal Welfare 31(2), 219-230.
For animals undergoing rehabilitation it is vital to monitor welfare in a way that is feasible, practical, and limits stress to the animal. The industry gold standard is to assess welfare under the Five Domains...
Kapusta, J., Kruczek, M., Pochroń, E. et al. 2022. Welfare of encaged rodents: Species specific behavioral reaction of voles to new enrichment items. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 246, 105522.
The enrichment of the environment of captive animals is one of the methods applied to reduce stress of the animals and to assure their proper welfare. However, placing objects in a limited space of a...
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...
Lane, S., Williams, W., Mayo, M. 2022. The impact of environmental enrichment on red-eared slider turtles (Trachemys elegans). Laboratory Animal Science Professional 10(3) (May/June), 18-20.
This study aimed to determine whether tank enrichment improved positive species-specific behaviors (those that benefit the animals' overall well-being), such as basking, and/or decreased negative behaviors (those that may indicate stress, agitation, or discomfort), such...
To improve animal welfare in collective park housing systems, this study assessed the effects of the provision of gnawing hay blocks and the group composition (F: females, M: males, FM: mixed sex) on performance, behavior...
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...
Abazaris, J., Hashway, S. 2022. Vole husbandry at Colorado University Boulder. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 10(4) (July/August), 12-15.
Since they arrived at CU Boulder, we have learned a lot about the voles from the laboratory, other institutions, and our trial-and-error. We hope this information can be helpful to any considering adding voles to...
Pantophlet, J., McClusky, D. 2022. Compressed paper column housing enrichment for Naked Mole-rats. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 10(5) (September/October), 42-44.
Naked Mole-rats are relative newcomers in the research world. Due to the complexity of their natural subterranean tunneling system, it has been difficult to replicate in the laboratory environment. Housing standards often differ from the...
Spitzer, H. B., Meagher, R. K., Proudfoot, K. L. 2022. The impact of providing hiding spaces to farmed animals: A scoping review. PLoS ONE 17(11), e0277665.
Many wild animals perform hiding behaviours for a variety of reasons, such as evading predators or other conspecifics. Unlike their wild counterparts, farmed animals often live in relatively barren environments without the opportunity to hide...
Stygar, A. H., Gómez, Y., Berteselli, G. V. et al. 2021. A systematic review on commercially available and validated sensor technologies for welfare assessment of dairy cattle. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 8, 634338.
In order to base welfare assessment of dairy cattle on real-time measurement, integration of valid and reliable precision livestock farming (PLF) technologies is needed. The aim of this study was to provide a systematic overview...
Guisnet, A., Maitra, M., Pradhan, S. et al. 2021. A three-dimensional habitat for C. elegans environmental enrichment. PLoS ONE 16(1), e0245139.
As we learn more about the importance of gene-environment interactions and the effects of environmental enrichment, it becomes evident that minimalistic laboratory conditions can affect gene expression patterns and behaviors of model organisms. In the...
da Silva, P. M. R. S., Ferreira, I. C., da Fonseca Neto, A. M. et al. 2021. Does environmental enrichment consisting of brushing prepartum zebu heifers improve first-lactation behavior? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 234, 105206.
To date, Qualitative Behavior Assessment (QBA) has not been used to measure the welfare of pre-partum Zebu heifers treated with practices of positive handling. The study objective was to investigate the effect of brushing as...
Uenishi, S., Oishi, K., Kojima, T. et al. 2021. A novel accelerometry approach combining information on classified behaviors and quantified physical activity for assessing health status of cattle: A preliminary study. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 235, 105220.
Evaluation of animal behavior provides information on health and well-being in animals. In this preliminary study, we investigated the effectiveness of an accelerometry approach to evaluate changes in health status of cattle by combining physical...
Meneses, X. C. A., Park, R. M., Ridge, E. E. et al. 2021. Hourly activity patterns and behaviour-based management of feedlot steers with and without a cattle brush. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 236, 105241.
Environmental enrichment (EE) can increase the environmental complexity of feedlots by providing mental and physical stimulation. The objectives of the study were to 1) identify hourly patterns of feedlot steer behaviour and 2) evaluate the...
Sørensen, D., Cloutier, S., Gaskill, B. (Eds.). 2021. Animal-centric Care and Management - Enhancing Refinement in Biomedical Research. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.
The concept of the 3Rs (Refinement, Reduction and Replacement) has been used as a framework for improving the welfare of laboratory animals for the last half century. By establishing an animal-centric view on housing and...
Zhang, C., Juniper, D. T., Meagher, R. K. 2021. Effects of physical enrichment items and social housing on calves’ growth, behaviour and response to novelty. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 237, 105295.
The objective of this study was to determine the effects of social housing, the provision of physical enrichment, and the interaction between the two on calf growth, behaviour and fearfulness. Forty-eight calves were randomly allocated...
Úbeda, Y., Ortín, S., Robeck, T. R. et al. 2021. Personality of killer whales (Orcinus orca) is related to welfare and subjective well-being. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 237, 105297.
Questionnaires are very useful tools when it comes to assessing zoo based animal measures and caretakers of these animals (such as keepers, trainers and veterinarians) are in the best position to provide accurate answers to...
Nagabaskaran, G., Burman, O. H. P., Hoehfurtner, T. et al. 2021. Environmental enrichment impacts discrimination between familiar and unfamiliar human odours in snakes (Pantherophis guttata). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 237, 105278.
Environmental enrichment has been found to significantly influence the cognitive abilities of a variety of mammalian and avian species, with effects ranging from positive to negative, however, these effects have been little studied in reptiles...
Hoehfurtner, T., Wilkinson, A., Nagabaskaran, G. et al. 2021. Does the provision of environmental enrichment affect the behaviour and welfare of captive snakes? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 239, 105324.
There is a wealth of evidence demonstrating the benefits of environmental enrichment across a range of different animal species. However, there is comparatively little such research into the effect of enrichment provision on captive reptiles...
Lambert, K. 2021. DIY: Dehydrated watermelon training chips. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 9(4) (July/August), 48.
This simple DIY training treat is great for NHP, swine, rabbits, rodents, and dogs. Note that dehydrated watermelon may resemble muscle tissue!
Hollandt, T., Baur, M., Wöhr, A.-C. 2021. Animal-appropriate housing of ball pythons (Python regius)—Behavior-based evaluation of two types of housing systems. PLoS ONE 16(5), e0247082.
Considering animal welfare, animals should be kept in animal-appropriate and stress-free housing conditions in all circumstances. To assure such conditions, not only basic needs must be met, but also possibilities must be provided that allow...
Learmonth, M. J., Sherwen, S., Hemsworth, P. H. 2021. Assessing preferences of two zoo-housed Aldabran giant tortoises (Aldabrachelys gigantea) for three stimuli using a novel preference test. Zoo Biology 40(2), 98-106.
Recent research has uncovered many complex cognitive traits and affective processes in many reptile species, such as the ability to make choices that are rewarding or pleasurable. The investigation herein was initiated after many years...

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