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...

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...

Ausderau, K. K., Colman, R. J., Kabakov, S. et al. 2023. Evaluating depression- and anxiety-like behaviors in non-human primates. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 16, 1006065.

Depression and anxiety are some of the most prevalent and debilitating mental health conditions in humans. They can present on their own or as co-morbidities with other disorders. Like humans, non-human primates (NHPs) can develop...

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...

Cohen, S., Ho, C. 2023. Review of rat (Rattus norvegicus), Mouse (mus musculus), Guinea pig (Cavia procellus), and rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) indicators for welfare assessment. Animals 13(13), 2167.

The monitoring and assessment of animals is important for their health and welfare. The appropriate selection of multiple, validated, and feasible welfare assessment indicators is required to effectively identify compromises or improvements to animal welfare...

Hernández-Arteaga, E., Ågmo, A. 2023. Seminatural environments for rodent behavioral testing: A representative design improving animal welfare and enhancing replicability. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 17, 1192213.

The low replicability of scientific studies has become an important issue. One possible cause is low representativeness of the experimental design employed. Already in the 1950’s, Egon Brunswick pointed out that experimental setups ideally should...

Neal Webb, S., Schapiro, S. 2023. Locomotion as a measure of well-being in captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Animals 13(5), 803.

Locomotion in non-human primates, including walking, climbing, and brachiating among other types of movement (but not pacing), is a species-typical behavior that varies with age, social housing conditions, and environmental factors (e.g., season, food availability...

Silva-Reis, R., Faustino-Rocha, A. I., Silva, J. et al. 2023. Studying and analyzing humane endpoints in the fructose-fed and streptozotocin-injected rat model of diabetes. Animals 13(8), 1397.

This work aimed to define a humane endpoint scoring system able to objectively identify signs of animal suffering in a rat model of type 2 diabetes. Sprague-Dawley male rats were divided into control and induced...

Whitham, J. C., Hall, K., Lauderdale, L. K. et al. 2023. Integrating reference intervals into chimpanzee welfare research. Animals 13(4), 639.

Animal welfare researchers are committed to developing novel approaches to enhance the quality of life of chimpanzees living in professional care. To systematically monitor physical, mental, and emotional states, welfare scientists highlight the importance of...

Williams, E., Hunton, V., Hosey, G. et al. 2023. The impact of visitors on non-primate species in zoos: A quantitative review. Animals 13(7), 1178.

Visitors are a prominent feature in the lives of zoo animals, and their presence can cause a range of impacts on zoo animals (typically classed as positive, negative or neutral impacts), commonly referred to as...

Edes, A. N., Brown, J. L., Edwards, K. L. 2023. Evaluating individual biomarkers for predicting health risks in zoo-housed chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus). American Journal of Primatology 85(3), e23457.

Although biomarkers are often used for predicting morbidity and mortality in humans, similar data are lacking in our closest relatives. This study analyzed 16 biomarkers in zoo-housed chimpanzees and bonobos from serum samples collected during...

Jain, A. K., Tansey, G., Hartig, R. et al. 2023. Trends and treatment approaches for complications in neuroscience experiments with monkey species. Comparative Medicine 73(3), 216–228.

Our goal in this manuscript is to advance the assessment and treatment of monkey species in neuroscience research. We hope to begin a discussion and establish baseline data on how complications are identified and treated...

Fultz, A., Lewis, R., Kelly, L. et al. 2023. Behavioral welfare research for the management of sanctuary chimpanzees (pan troglodytes). Animals 13(16), 2595.

Chimp Haven is a sanctuary for chimpanzees retired from biomedical research, rescued from the pet trade, or re-homed after other organizations could no longer care for them. To provide optimal care for over 300 chimpanzees...

Shanazz, K., Nalloor, R., Vazdarjanova, A. 2023. A mild stressor induces short-term anxiety and long-term phenotypic changes in trauma-related behavior in female rats. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 17.

IntroductionAnxiety and anxiety-influenced disorders are sexually dimorphic with women being disproportionately affected compared to men. Given the increased prevalence in women and the documented differences in anxiety and trauma behavior between male and female rats...

Molnar, D. L., Vernasco Price, E. J. 2023. Use of a toy soak to maximize staff efficiency in cage wash operations. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 11(2) (March/April), 40-41.

The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals emphasizes that the primary aim of environmental enrichment is to enhance animal well-being. At our facility, at the end of a two-week cycle in a...

Benato, L., Murrell, J., Rooney, N. 2023. Determining a cut-off point for intervention analgesia in rabbits using the Bristol Rabbit Pain Scale. Veterinary Record 193(5), e2995.

Background: The objective of this study was to determine the threshold of the Bristol Rabbit Pain Scale (BRPS) indicating the need for intervention analgesia. Methods: Fourteen members of veterinary staff were recruited to rate rabbits...

Calisir, M., Yilmaz, O., Kolatan, H. E. et al. 2023. Effects of litter size and caging on physical and mental development in rats. Physiology & Behavior 267, 114200.

As a multidisciplinary field, laboratory animal science promotes or accelerates the emergence of innovative ideas and products. As research has increased, so has the demand for laboratory animals with reliable, standardized characteristics. Thus, the breeding...

Maganhe, B. L., Andrade, L. S., Camilo, L. de O. et al. 2023. Food-related substrate preference in juveniles seastar Echinaster (Othilia) brasiliensis (Müller & Troschel,1842) in captivity. Zoo Biology 42(5), 675–682.

There are only a few studies that describe the larval development of Echinaster or aspects on culture systems for the genus. For starfishes, the choice of suitable substrates has received special attention since it could...

Neville, V., Lind, J., Mendl, E. et al. 2023. A mapping review of refinements to laboratory rat housing and husbandry. Lab Animal 52(3), 63–74.

Refining the housing and husbandry of laboratory rats is an important goal, both for ethical reasons and to allow better quality research. We conducted a mapping review of 1,017 studies investigating potential refinements of housing...

Wongsaengchan, C., McCafferty, D. J., Evans, N. P. et al. 2023. Body surface temperature of rats reveals both magnitude and sex differences in the acute stress response. Physiology & Behavior 264, 114138.

Understanding how biological markers of stress relate to stressor magnitude is much needed and can be used in welfare assessment. Changes in body surface temperature can be measured using infrared thermography (IRT) as a marker...

Pinho, R. H., Justo, A. A., Cima, D. S. et al. 2023. Effects of human observer presence on pain assessment using facial expressions in rabbits. JAALAS 62(1), 81–86.

The goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of a human observer on Rabbit Grimace Scale (RbtGS) scores. The study scored video footage taken of 28 rabbits before and after orthopedic surgery, as...

Vaz, J., McElligott, A. G., Narayan, E. 2022. Linking the roles of personality and stress physiology for managing the welfare of captive big cats. Animal Welfare 31(1), 99-111.

Animal welfare is important for the humane treatment of animals under our care. Zoos and rescue centres manage various charismatic animals, such as big cats, with limited resources. It is therefore essential for caretakers to...

Hopper, L. M., Lake, B. R., Leinwand, J. G. et al. 2022. Assessing chimpanzees’ fluency of movement: Applications for monitoring health and welfare. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 250, 105612.

With age, primates’ activity levels and ease of movement may decline and changes in locomotory behaviour may reflect changes in health. Thus, developing quick and reliable measures of movement has important applications for measuring recovery...

Garai, M. E., Roos, T., Eggeling, T. et al. 2022. Developing welfare parameters for African elephants (Loxodonta africana) in fenced reserves in South Africa. PLOS ONE 17(3), e0264931.

South Africa has many fenced reserves harbouring small to medium sized populations of African elephant (Loxodonta africana), most of which have been translocated. Elephants on fenced reserves may be exposed to various management interventions and...

Clay, A. W., Crane, M. M., Bloomsmith, M. A. 2022. Weight management towards physiological and behavioral wellbeing for chimpanzees living under human care. Zoo Biology 41(3), 200-217.

Across a period of 54 months, several changes were made to the feeding protocols of 32 adult chimpanzees living at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center Field Station. Before implementing any changes in diet, baseline...