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. 

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...

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...

The implementation of environmental enrichment (EE) can be effective in promoting zoo animal welfare by enhancing the performance of natural or species-typical behaviors. Research on the effects of EE is biased towards larger mammalian species...

Holistic approaches have been implemented to minimise stress expressed as stereotypies associated with low welfare conditions, which can arise from a range of factors such as frustration, adaptation attempts and neurological problems. Such behaviour was...

Tactile signals are essential for Antillean manatee communication and survival because they facilitate interactions with conspecifics and the environment. Nevertheless, relatively little is known about tactile signal usage. This study aimed to assess captive Antillean...

The development of biomedical soft- or hardware frequently includes testing in animals. However, large efforts have been made to reduce the number of animal experiments, according to the 3Rs principle. Simultaneously, a significant number of...

The order Sirenia comprises several species of manatees and one species of dugong. These popular marine mammals are relatively recent acquisitions to zoological parks throughout the world. As far as we know, there are less...

FTDs are Australian carnivorous nocturnal marsupials, whose diet, environmental needs, and enrichment vary from typical research species. Due to the limited working knowledge on the husbandry and care of this species in a biomedical setting...

Conducting safety evaluations of new drugs using conscious animals has been a specialty of our working group for thirty years. In this article, we review the various technical challenges and solutions dealt with over the...

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...

Colony rooms provide cats with many opportunities to use enrichment, but animal shelters usually have finite resources to provision items. This study examined how cats select enrichment items when given a variety of options. Our...

Browsing enrichment may aid in developing species-specific behaviors for giraffes managed in zoos as a means of improving animal welfare. By nature, giraffes are tree-feeding animals, including tree bark, but the extent of food other...

Preference responses of cats for scratching fabrics commonly used on furniture were evaluated during four consecutive days in three Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that rescue companion animals. Cats were grouped and their choices were registered at...

Sporotrichosis treatment in cats requires long-term isolation of infected animals. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of environmental enrichment sessions on the behaviour and lesion progression of cats hospitalized for sporotrichosis...

Finding tools to assess the stress response which can be easily applied, are non-invasive, reliable and measured in real time is still a relevant topic in many areas of biology. Vocal characteristics and temperature of...

Environmental enrichment is used to improve the welfare of captive animals by providing increased environmental variety, the provision of choice, and the opportunity to develop competency. The efficacy of a range of environmental enrichment should...

Enrichment is important for animal welfare and data quality. Provision of enrichment opportunities varies between species and enrichment category. However, data benchmarking these differences does not exist. Our objective was to characterize enrichment provision and...

Evidence-based approaches are key to advancing all areas of zoo and aquarium practice. Output from empirical study must be disseminated to those within the industry so that results can support changes to husbandry and management...

Research into cat behavior has gained more attention in recent years. As one of the world’s most popular companion animals, work in this field has potential to have wide-reaching benefits. Cats living in shelters are...

Common Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) is a rare mammal appearing in South and Southeast Asia, first described in 1777. Because of the detrimental effects of stress, studying stress responses is important for this wildlife conservation...

OBJECTIVE: To perform a retrospective, multicenter observational study that compares the agreement of rectal temperature with the temperature measured with noncontact infrared thermometer (NCIT) in a population of dogs and cats. ANIMALS: 168 dogs and...

Being in human care often modifies the behaviour of animals, mainly because of the lack of environmental stimuli, and the ease of finding food and reproductive partners. Animals in human care may have a poorer...

Hair can be preferred over other biological matrices for ethical reasons. Hair samples can be obtained non-invasively, thus addressing the pressing issues of animal welfare in wildlife research. Additionally, hair collection is simple and inexpensive...

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...