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. 
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...

Cavallino, L., Rincón, L., Scaia, M. F. 2023. Social behaviors as welfare indicators in teleost fish. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10, 1050510.

Animal welfare is a key issue not only for aquaculture industry and food production, but also for daily husbandry practices in research topics related to physiology in wild and farmed animals. In this context, teleost...

Ghassani, Y. K., Rianti, P., Priambada, N. P. et al. 2023. Welfare assessment of slow loris (Nycticebus spp.) at an Indonesian primate rehabilitation center: Development and validation of body condition score. American Journal of Primatology 85(8), e23524.

Body condition scoring (BCS) assessment can reflect animal welfare status and help the veterinarian to make a quick health management decision, including for confiscated slow loris (Nycticebus spp.). The confiscated slow loris should be rehabilitated...

O’Brien, S. L., Cronin, K. A. 2023. Doing better for understudied species: Evaluation and improvement of a species-general animal welfare assessment tool for zoos. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 264, 105965.

Accredited zoos and aquariums are required to have a welfare assessment process in place for the animals in their care. However, welfare assessment theoretical frameworks and methodologies vary widely. Previous studies have shown that taxonomic...

Cortés Pérez, E., Maldonado Reséndiz, R. I. 2023. Welfare indices in Anurans under human care. Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens 4(3), 613–622.

Certain species within the order Anura are relatively new in the context of exotic animals as pets, and the precise conditions required for their optimal care and well-being are still not well understood. This knowledge...

Brereton, J. E., Brereton, S. 2023. The effect of basking light provision on sun beetle enclosure use. Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research 11(2), 283–288.

The effect of basking light provision on sun beetle enclosure use.

Narshi, T. M., Free, D., Justice, W. S. M. et al. 2022. Welfare assessment of invertebrates: Adapting the animal welfare assessment grid (AWAG) for zoo decapods and cephalopods. Animals 12(13), 1675.

Consumer demand for invertebrates is on the rise as their numbers in the wild dwindle. However, with the growing conservation efforts of modern zoos and aquariums, and evidence from over 300 studies showing that invertebrates...

Knaebe, B., Weiss, C. C., Zimmermann, J. et al. 2022. The promise of behavioral tracking systems for advancing primate animal welfare. Animals 12(13), 1648.

Recent years have witnessed major advances in the ability of computerized systems to track the positions of animals as they move through large and unconstrained environments. These systems have so far been a great boon...

Lei, Y., Dong, P., Guan, Y. et al. 2022. Postural behavior recognition of captive nocturnal animals based on deep learning: A case study of Bengal slow loris. Scientific Reports 12(1), 7738.

The precise identification of postural behavior plays a crucial role in evaluation of animal welfare and captive management. Deep learning technology has been widely used in automatic behavior recognition of wild and domestic fauna species...

Santymire, R. M., Young, M., Lenihan, E. et al. 2022. Preliminary investigation into developing the use of swabs for skin cortisol analysis for the ocean sunfish (Mola mola). Animals 12(20), 2868.

The ocean sunfish (mola; Mola mola) is the heaviest bony fish in the world. This slow-moving fish often is injured by fishing boats that use drift gillnets attributing to its listing as Vulnerable by the...

Coleman, K., Shapiro, S. J. (Eds.). 2021. Behavioral Biology of Laboratory Animals (1st ed). CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.

This 30-chapter volume informs students and professionals about the behavioral biology of animals commonly housed in laboratory and other captive settings. Each species evolved under specific environmental conditions, resulting in unique behavioral patterns, many of...

Yolles, J. N., Lee-Stubbs, R. B. 2021. Comparison of direct and indirect methods of measuring arterial blood pressure in healthy, anesthetized African green monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops). JAALAS 60(2), 229-237.

Quantitative blood pressure measurement is a critical parameter for assessing cardiovascular health, monitoring physiologic status under anesthesia, and making clinical decisions. The placement of an arterial catheter is the most accurate way to measure blood...

Holst, M. M., Miller-Morgan, T. 2021. The use of a species-specific health and welfare assessment tool for the giant Pacific octopus, Enteroctopus dofleini, Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 24(3), 272-291.

Cephalopods are increasingly viewed as sentient animals that require the same welfare consideration as their vertebrate counterparts. In this study, an observational welfare assessment tool developed by the EU Directive was revised to be species-specific...

Travain, T., Valsecchi, P. 2021. Infrared thermography in the study of animals’ emotional responses: A critical review. Animals 11(9), 2510.

Whether animals have emotions was historically a long-lasting question but, today, nobody disputes that they do. However, how to assess them and how to guarantee animals their welfare have become important research topics in the...

Diana, A., Salas, M., Pereboom, Z. et al. 2021. A systematic review of the use of technology to monitor welfare in zoo animals: Is there space for improvement? Animals 11(11), 3048.

A top priority of modern zoos is to ensure good animal welfare (AW), thus, efforts towards improving AW monitoring are increasing. Welfare assessments are performed through more traditional approaches by employing direct observations and time-consuming...

Hausmann, J. C., Krisp, A. R., Mans, C. et al. 2021. Analgesic efficacy of tramadol and morphine in White's tree frogs (Litoria caerulea). JAALAS 60(6), 681-686.

Published data are sparse regarding the recognition of clinically relevant pain and appropriate analgesia in amphibians. The amphibian analgesia literature has primarily focused on nociceptive pathways in a single species, the northern leopard frog (Rana...

Brandão, M. L., Dorigão-Guimarães, F., Bolognesi, M. C. et al. 2021. Understanding behaviour to improve the welfare of an ornamental fish. Journal of Fish Biology 99(3), 726-739.

Some common practices in aquaculture, ornamental trade and fish facilities may disturb the behavioural repertoire of fish and its natural adaptive value, reducing welfare and impairing fish production. Hence, it is necessary to understand fish...

Thatcher, D. 2021. The use of a borescope for Goodfellow’s tree kangaroo (Dendrolagus goodfellowi) husbandry. RATEL (Journal of the Association of British and Irish Wild Animal Keepers) 48(2), 10-11.

In 2017 Bristol Zoological Gardens received two Goodfellow tree kangaroos. As this was a new marsupial species for the collection, keepers attended the European Symposium on tree kangaroos to better improve our husbandry, knowledge and...

Woody, S. M., Santymire, R. M., Cronin, K. A. 2021. Posture as a non-invasive indicator of arousal in American toads (Anaxyrus americanus). Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens 2(1), 1–9.

Animal welfare has become a priority for modern zoos and aquariums. However, amphibians have not yet been the focus of much welfare research, perhaps in part because they do not tend to display many quantifiable...

Ross, S. R., Leinwand, J. G. 2020. A review of research in primate sanctuaries. Biology Letters 16(4), 1620200033.

While non-human primate studies have long been conducted in laboratories, and more recently at zoological parks, sanctuaries are increasingly considered a viable setting for research. Accredited sanctuaries in non-range countries house thousands of primates formerly...

Ruberto, T., Talbot, J. L., Reddon, A. R. 2020. Head up displays are a submission signal in the group-living daffodil cichlid. Behavioural Processes 181, 104271.

Dominance hierarchies can reduce conflict within social groups and agonistic signals can help to establish and maintain these hierarchies. Behaviours produced by subordinates in response to aggression are often assumed to function as signals of...

Egelkamp, C. L., Ross, S. R. 2019. A review of zoo-based cognitive research using touchscreen interfaces. Zoo Biology 38(2), 220-235.

In the past few decades, there has been an increase in the number of zoo-based touchscreen studies of animal cognition around the world. Such studies have contributed to the field of comparative cognition despite the...

Bartley, J. 2019. Darwin’s fishes?: Keeping Malawi cichlids. Animal Technology and Welfare 18(3), 199-202.

This poster will provide information on the cichlids, including their dietary and husbandry requirements and the breeding of these animals.

Cooke, G. M., Tonkins, B. M., Mather, J. A. 2019. Care and enrichment for captive cephalopods. In: The Welfare of Invertebrate Animals. Carere, C., Mather, J. (eds), 179-208. Springer, Cham.

Cephalopods have become an archetype for invertebrate cognition, sentience and welfare studies. Their convergence with so-called ‘higher’ vertebrates (birds, mammals) in memory, learning, problem-solving, tool use and likely sentience has made biologists completely rethink the...

McMillan, F. D. (ed). 2019. Mental Health and Well-being in Animals (2nd ed). CABI, Wallingford, UK.

This second edition is fully revised, expanded, and comprehensively updated with the most current knowledge about the full array of mental health issues seen in animals. Written by key opinion leaders, internationally-recognized experts and specialists...