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...

Mantz, M., Pugerud, A. 2024. Overcoming the hurdles of lab animal enrichment: Natural behaviors vs. scientific need. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 12(1) (January/February), 32-34.

The Animal Resources Core (ARC) at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute (AWRI) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) faces many of the same challenges other institutions manage in terms of enrichment for laboratory animals. A Behavior...

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...

Alig, B. N., Ferket, P. R., Malheiros, R. D. et al. 2023. The effect of housing environment on commercial brown egg layer production, USDA grade and USDA size distribution. Animals 13(4), 694

Consumer demand for retail cage-free eggs is driving the layer industry towards greater use of extensive housing environments. However, there is limited research on how these environments affect egg production characteristics of brown egg layers...

Brando, S., Vitale, A., Bacon, M. 2023. Promoting good nonhuman primate welfare outside regular working hours. Animals 13(8), 1423.

Promoting good primate welfare outside of daylight hours is an important task. The responsibility to provide a complex environment and environmental enrichment is an essential element of primate wellbeing programs that should be approached from...

da Silva, M. I. L., Paz, I. C. de L. A., Jacinto, A. S. et al. 2023. Providing environmental enrichments can reduce subclinical spondylolisthesis prevalence without affecting performance in broiler chickens. PLOS ONE 18(4), e0284087.

Environmental enrichment can increase the occurrence of natural behavior and improve leg health and other animal welfare outcomes in broiler chickens. This study aimed to assess the effects of three environmental enrichments, specifically hay bales...

Evans, L., Brooks, G. C., Anderson, M. G. et al. 2023. Environmental complexity and reduced stocking density promote positive behavioral outcomes in broiler chickens. Animals 13(13), 2074.

The objective was to evaluate the impacts of a complex environment and stocking density on Ross 708 broiler chicken behaviors. Eight pens contained either high complexity (HC) or low complexity (LC) environments, and high (HD)...

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...

Skånberg, L., Newberry, R. C., Estevez, I. et al. 2023. Environmental change or choice during early rearing improves behavioural adaptability in laying hen chicks. Scientific Reports 13(1), 6178.

Laying hens are typically moved to a novel environment after rearing, requiring adaptability to cope with change. We hypothesized that the standard rearing of laying hen chicks, in non-changing environments with limited choices (a single...

Zieliński, D. 2023. The effect of enrichment on leopard geckos (Eublepharis macularius) housed in two different maintenace systems (rack system vs. Terrarium). Animals 13(6), 1111.

The aim of this study was to test the usefulness of environmental enrichment for Eublepharis macularius depending on the maintenance method (terrarium vs. rack system). The hypothesis was that reptiles kept in an extremely low-stimulus...

Kapusta, J., Siewierska, D., Kruczek, M. et al. 2023. Species specific differences in short-term behavioral reaction of voles to cage elements removal. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 262, 105899.

The welfare of animals used in scientific experiments should be one of the most important things to take care of. Many kinds of research show that the enriching elements can help animals to fulfil their...

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...

Vas, J., BenSassi, N., Vasdal, G. et al. 2023. Better welfare for broiler chickens given more types of environmental enrichments and more space to enjoy them. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 261, 105901.

Providing an increased variety of environmental enrichment options, with sufficient space to use them, could increase the behavioural expression of positive affective states in production animals. The goal of this study was to investigate associations...

Beekmans, M. H. C., Vinke, C. M., Maijer, A. et al. 2023. Increasing foraging times with appetitive and consummatory foraging enrichment in grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 265, 105986.

Foraging enrichment is considered one of the most effective ways to enhance expression of species-typical behaviours and prevent the development of abnormal (repetitive) behaviours in captive animals. However, foraging enrichments for parrots have thus far...

Brunet, V., Lafond, T., Kleiber, A. et al. 2023. Environmental enrichment improves cognitive flexibility in rainbow trout in a visual discrimination task: First insights. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.
Fernández-Lázaro, G., Latorre, R., Fontanillas Pérez, J. C. et al. 2023. Reaction to novel objects and fecal glucocorticoid metabolite levels in two species of nocturnal geckos. Animals 13(21), 3384.

Many reptiles are maintained in captivity and heavily traded, although welfare measures for many species are not well established and are under-researched compared to other animals. In this study, we focused on two of these...

Grandin, T. 2023. A practical approach to providing environmental enrichment to pigs and broiler chickens housed in intensive systems. Animals 13(14), 2372.

In Europe, regulations contain guidance to maintain high standards of animal welfare. In many parts of the world, large buyers for supermarkets or restaurants are the main enforcers of basic animal welfare standards. They can...

Krönke, F., Xu, L. 2023. Sensory stimulation as a means of sustained enhancement of well-being in leopard geckos, Eublepharis macularius (Eublepharidae, Squamata). Animals 13(23), 3595.

Although the private keeping of reptiles has boomed in most western countries since the millennium, studies dealing with the recognition and promotion of welfare in these reptiles seem to represent a blind spot of scientific...

Mählis, G., Kleine, A., Lüschow, D. et al. 2023. Clicker training as an applied refinement measure in chickens. Animals 13(24), 3836.

When using chickens in animal studies, the handling of these animals for sample collection or general examinations is considered stressful due to their prey nature. For the study presented here, plasma and salivary corticosterone as...

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...

Stevens, C., Hammonds, T., Hinchcliffe, J. et al. 2023. Report of the 2022 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group Meeting. Animal Technology and Welfare 22(2), 91–100.

The RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group has held a one-day meeting every autumn for the last 29 years, so that its members can discuss current welfare research, exchange views on welfare issues and share experiences of...

van Zeeland, Y. R. A., Schoemaker, N. J., Lumeij, J. T. 2023. Contrafreeloading indicating the behavioural need to forage in healthy and feather damaging Grey parrots. Animals 13(16), 2635.

Contrafreeloading (CFL) is a concept that describes the preference of an animal to work for food even when identical food is freely available, and reflects an intrinsic motivation to engage in foraging-related activities. However, altered...

Wang, C., Yang, C., Zeng, Y. et al. 2023. GnRH-immunocastration: An alternative method for male animal surgical castration. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.
Zhao, S., Cui, W., Yin, G. et al. 2023. Effects of different auditory environments on behavior, learning ability, and fearfulness in 4-week-old laying hen chicks. Animals 13(19), 3022.

Environmental enrichment can improve animal welfare. As a method of environmental enrichment, the effect of different auditory stimulations on the behavior response and welfare of laying hen chicks has yet to be investigated. Therefore, this...

Anderson-Mondella, C. J., Maines, T. R., Tansey, C. M. et al. 2023. Meeting ferret enrichment needs in infectious disease laboratory settings. JAALAS 62(6), 518–524.

Environmental enrichment is a necessary component of all research vivarium settings. However, appropriate enrichment decisions vary greatly depending on the species involved and the research use of the animals. The increasing use of ferrets in...