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...

Kaiser, S., Korte, A., Wistuba, J. et al. 2023. Effects of castration and sterilization on baseline and response levels of cortisol—A case study in male guinea pigs. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 1093157.

An uncontrolled reproduction of animals in human hands should be avoided. To meet this goal, animals are widely castrated, i.e., the gonads are completely removed. Since the gonads are the most important source of sex...

Kannan, G., Batchu, P., Naldurtiker, A. et al. 2023. Habituation to livestock trailer and its influence on stress responses during transportation in goats. Animals 13(7), 1191.

This experiment was conducted to determine the effects of habituation to livestock trailers on stress responses in goats transported for long periods. Intact male Spanish goats (12-month old; BW = 31.6 ± 0.34 kg; N...

Kumar, P., Abubakar, A. A., Ahmed, M. A. et al. 2023. Electroencephalogram and physiological responses as affected by slaughter empathy in goats. Animals 13(6), 1100.

Recent advances in emotions and cognitive science make it imperative to assess the emotional stress in goats at the time of slaughter. The present study was envisaged to study the electroencephalogram and physiological responses as...

Kumar, P., Abubakar, A. A., Imlan, J. C. et al. 2023. Importance of knife sharpness during slaughter: Shariah and Kosher perspective and scientific validation. Animals 13(11), 1751.

Halal and kosher slaughter have given the utmost importance to the sharpness of knives during the slaughter of animals. A sharp knife of appropriate dimension (blade length) makes slaughter less painful during neck severance and...

Kondrashev, S. L. 2023. Trichromatic vision in toads: Evidence from preference for colour objects during mate choice. Behaviour 160(8), 753–784.

Input of different spectral types of photoreceptors in amphibian colour vision has been assessed by studying the behaviour of male toads Bufo bufo and B. gargarizans in a laboratory. This method is based on the...

Clemente, G. A., Tolini, C., Boscarino, A. et al. 2023. Farmed fish welfare during slaughter in Italy: Survey on stunning and killing methods and indicators of unconsciousness. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.

Information on slaughter procedures for farmed fish in aquaculture is limited, both in Europe and in Italy, due to a general lack of field data. The aim of this study was to gather information on...

Kongara, K., Singh, P., Venkatachalam, D. et al. 2023. Pain assessment in goat kids: Focus on disbudding. Animals 13(24), 3814.

Farm animals are routinely subjected to painful husbandry procedures for various purposes. Goat kids are disbudded to improve goat welfare and to ensure safety of other livestock, farm personnel, attending veterinarians and for various other...

Wang, C., Yang, C., Zeng, Y. et al. 2023. GnRH-immunocastration: An alternative method for male animal surgical castration. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.
Alvarez, L., Terrazas, A., Rojas, S. et al. 2023. Cortisol and pain-related behavior in hot-iron disbudded goat kids sedated with xylazine and locally infiltrated with lidocaine. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 63, 42–47.

Disbudding induces intense pain-related behavioral and physiological responses in goat kids. Using only regional anesthesia may not be effective in ameliorating these responses. We determined the effect of xylazine-sedation with or without regional infiltration of...

Elane, G. L., Portela, D. A., Hobbs, K. J. et al. 2023. Sedated cesarean sections are associated with increased kid survival compared to general anesthesia in goats: Retrospective cohort of 45 cases (2011–2021). Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 261(3), 391–396.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether anesthesia type (sedation or general anesthesia) affects kid survival to discharge in caprine cesarean sections (C-sections). ANIMALS Retrospective cohort of 99 caprine C-sections (2011–2021). PROCEDURES All surgeries were performed via left...

Olagbaju, T. T., Troan, B. V., Balko, J. A. 2023. Investigation of potassium chloride for euthanasia of anesthetized African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis). JAALAS 62(4), 362–369.

Euthanasia is frequently performed in amphibians, but techniques are currently limited in number and variable in effectiveness. The current study examined the use of potassium chloride (KCl) for euthanasia of anesthetized African clawed frogs (Xenopus...

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...

Tetlow, S. A. J., Brennan, M. L., Garcia-Ara, A. 2022. Welfare indicators for stunning versus non-stunning slaughter in sheep and cattle: A scoping review. Vet Record 191(6), e1739.

Background: While most cattle and sheep in the United Kingdom are stunned before slaughter, non-stun methods are permitted to supply meat to specific consumers. This study aimed to identify the existing literature that compared animal...

Chen, Y.-A., Chen, J.-Y., Chen, W.-Q. et al. 2022. Effects of castration age on the growth performance of Nubian crossbred male goats. Animals 12(24), 3516.

To determine the optimal timing for performing castration on goats, eighteen male Nubian crossbred goats were randomly assigned to two groups and castrated at 3 months and 6 months of age, respectively. Daily dry matter...

Kulyar, M. F.-A., Ashfaq, K., Aqib, A. I. et al. 2022. Enhanced healing activity of manuka honey and nitrofurazone composite in full-thickness burn wounds in the rabbit model. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 875629.

Burns cause many significant changes in metabolism and inflammatory reactions, leading to poor regeneration in animals and humans. A list of medicines to treat burns is available in the market. But due to the high...

Mason, G. J., Lavery, J. M. 2022. What is it like to be a bass? Red herrings, fish pain and the study of animal sentience. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 788289.

Debates around fishes’ ability to feel pain concern sentience: do reactions to tissue damage indicate evaluative consciousness (conscious affect), or mere nociception? Thanks to Braithwaite’s research leadership, and concerns that current practices could compromise welfare...

Mayes, B. T., Tait, L. A., Cowley, F. C. et al. 2022. Stocking density, restricted trough space, and implications for sheep behaviour and biological functioning. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 965635.

Stocking density and trough space allowance can potentially impact sheep welfare during live export voyages. The aim of this study was to assess the welfare implications for sheep housed at five allometric stocking densities, with...

Mota-Rojas, D., Velarde, A., Marcet-Rius, M. et al. 2022. Analgesia during parturition in domestic animals: Perspectives and controversies on its use. Animals 12(19), 2686.

This article analyzes the physiological role of pain during parturition in domestic animals, discusses the controversies surrounding the use of opioids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and local analgesics as treatments during labor, and presents the...

Bilkó, Á., Petróczi, I., Bárdos, B. et al. 2022. Composition of the wild rabbit nest and its implication for domestic rabbit breeding. Applied Sciences 12(4), 1915.

Wild European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) give birth in an underground nursery burrow where the kits are hermetically closed into the nest chamber for several weeks except for the three minutes of daily nursing. Given this...

Ramos, J., Balasch, J. C., Tort, L. 2021. About welfare and stress in the early stages of fish. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 8, 634434.

In conclusion, the investigations carried out up to now demonstrate that during the early stages fish show high sensitivity to many types of stressors involving an array of responses to overcome alterations that could affect...

Hempstead, M. N., Shearer, J. K., Sutherland, M. A. et al. 2021. Cautery disbudding iron application time and brain injury in goat kids: A pilot study. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 7, 568750.

Cautery disbudding is a painful procedure performed on goat kids to prevent horn growth that may result in brain injury. Thermal damage to the cerebral cortex of the brain and subsequent neurologic disease is a...

Leeds, A., Boyer, D., Ross, S. R. et al. 2021. Patterns of wounding in mixed-sex social groups of western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 236, 105226.

Long-term, multi-institutional assessments have become a reliable tool for evaluating patterns of wounding in zoo-living primates, with results informing on best practices for species-specific care protocols and population management strategies. For western lowland gorillas (Gorilla...

Harris, C., White, P. J., Hall, E. et al. 2021. Evaluation of electroencephalography, behaviour and eye temperature in response to surgical castration in sheep. Animals 11(3), 637.

Castration has been demonstrated to cause pain in sheep. However, it is routinely performed for management purposes. Electroencephalography (EEG) has been used successfully to measure pain in lambs in response to castration and other husbandry...

Steagall, P. V., Bustamante, H., Johnson, C. B. et al. 2021. Pain management in farm animals: Focus on cattle, sheep and pigs. Animals 11(6), 1483.

Pain causes behavioral, autonomic, and neuroendocrine changes and is a common cause of animal welfare compromise in farm animals. Current societal and ethical concerns demand better agricultural practices and improved welfare for food animals. These...