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. 
Kells, N. J., Beausoleil, N. J., Sutherland, M. A. et al. 2018. Electroencephalographic responses of anaesthetised rats to carbon dioxide inhalation. Animal Welfare 27(3), 215-223.

Exposure to high concentrations of CO2 is a common means of stunning and killing laboratory rodents. However, there is concern regarding the potential for animals to have aversive experiences, such as pain or breathlessness, prior...

Gilliam, J. N., Woods, J., Hill, J. et al. 2018. Evaluation of the CASH Dispatch Kit combined with alternative shot placement landmarks as a single-step euthanasia method for cattle of various ages. Animal Welfare 27(3), 225-233.

Humane euthanasia of cattle under field conditions presents special challenges for veterinarians and producers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the CASH Dispatch Kit captive-bolt system combined with improved shot...

Harikrishnan, V. S., Hansen, A. K., Abelson, K. S. P. et al. 2018. A comparison of various methods of blood sampling in mice and rats: Effects on animal welfare. Laboratory Animals 52(3), 253-264.

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of blood sampling on animal welfare in a total of 60 NTac:SD rats and 72 C57BL/6NTac mice of both sexes. Blood was sampled either by sublingual vein...

Khoo, S. Y.-S., Lay, B. P. P., Joya, J. et al. 2018. Local anaesthetic refinement of pentobarbital euthanasia reduces abdominal writhing without affecting immunohistochemical endpoints in rats. Laboratory Animals 52(2), 152-162.

Sodium pentobarbital is a commonly used agent for euthanizing laboratory rats, however its high pH can cause abdominal discomfort after intraperitoneal injection. Previous studies suggest that the addition of a local anaesthetic may alleviate this...

Shearer, J. 2018. Euthanasia of cattle: Practical considerations and application. Animals 8(4), 57.

Acceptable methods for the euthanasia of cattle include overdose of an anesthetic, gunshot and captive bolt. The use of anesthetics for euthanasia is costly and complicates carcass disposal. These issues can be avoided by use...

Hoffman, J. F., Fan, A. X., Neuendorf, E. H. et al. 2018. Hydrophobic sand versus metabolic cages: A comparison of urine collection methods for rats (Rattus norvegicus). JAALAS 57(1), 51-57.

A common method for urine collection from rats requires the use of a metabolic cage, thus exposing animals to extended periods of isolation in an unfamiliar cage with a wire-mesh floor. A new method involving...

Phillips, K.A., Tukan, A. N., Rigodanzo, A. D. et al. 2018. Quantification of hair cortisol concentration in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) and tufted capuchins (Cebus apella). American Journal of Primatology 80(7), e22879.

Quantifying cortisol concentration in hair is a non‐invasive biomarker of long‐term hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal (HPA) activation, and thus can provide important information on laboratory animal health. Marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) and capuchins (Cebus apella) are New World primates...

Read, H., Perry, R. 2018. A refinement to Schedule 1. Animal Technology and Welfare 17(2), 117-120.

There are varying methods used for animal restraint and angle of injection. It remains unclear whether one method is more accurate than others. The primary objectives were to examine whether inverted restraint of rats resulted...

van Wijk, H., Crossman, L., Adjin-Tettey, G. et al. 2018. Advances in animal welfare and scientific outcomes of the bile duct cannulated rat model utilised in ADME studies. Animal Technology and Welfare 17(1), 64-67.

Since rats lack a gall bladder, they are an ideal model for investigating continuous biliary excretion and biotransformation. The design and implementation of a modified tail cuff and cannula system introduced at Covance permits the...

Hocking, A. J., Elliot, D., Hua, J. et al. 2018. Administering fixed oral doses of curcumin to rats through voluntary consumption. JAALAS 57(5), 508–512.

Curcumin, a polyphenol derived from turmeric, has a wide variety of therapeutic benefits including antiinflammatory, antioxidative, and chemopreventative effects. Oral gavage is widely performed to administer curcumin in laboratory rodents in several experimental models. Although...

Hickman D. L. 2018. Interpreting neuroendocrine hormones, corticosterone, and blood glucose to assess the wellbeing of anesthetized rats during euthanasia. JAALAS 57(6), 725–728.

Current recommendations for assessing animal wellbeing during euthanasia suggest that measuring neuroendocrine hormones—such as ACTH, noradrenaline, and adrenaline—is preferable to measuring corticosterone and blood glucose because of the sensitivity of neuroendocrine hormones to the acute...

Hickman D. L. 2018. Home cage compared with induction chamber for euthanasia of laboratory rats. JAALAS 57(6), 729–733.

This study compared behavioral and physiologic changes in Sprague–Dawley and Brown Norway rats that were euthanized by using a 30% volume displacement rate of CO2 in either their home cage or an induction chamber; rats...

Raya, J., Neves Girardi , C. E., Hipólide, D. C. 2019. Corticosterone assimilation by a voluntary oral administration in palatable food to rats. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 22(1), 37-41.

Drug delivery in research on nonhuman animals in the laboratory is still challenging because it is usually invasive and stressful. Stress-free voluntary oral drug administration in water lacks precise control of dose and timing of...

Neff, E. P. 2018. Home sweet home cage. Lab Animal 47(10), 261–264.

This feature describes creative ways in which technology can be used to study animals within their home cages, eliminating the need to handle, restrain, and separate them from cage mates. One example includes voluntary brain...

Taylor, R. M., Miller, P. R., Ebrahimi, P. et al. 2018. Minimally-invasive, microneedle-array extraction of interstitial fluid for comprehensive biomedical applications: Transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, exosome research, and biomarker identification. Laboratory Animals 52(5), 526–530.

Interstitial fluid (ISF) has recently garnered interest as a biological fluid that could be used as an alternate to blood for biomedical applications, diagnosis, and therapy. ISF extraction techniques are promising because they are less...

Byrd, R., Boyd, S., Buckmaster, C. 2018. Rat thunder jacket— A zen experience. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 6(3) (September), 55-57.

Germ-free rats are fairly uncommon, relative to germ-free mice, and restraining these animals safely and effectively for compound administration and blood collection can be challenging. There are many commercially available varieties of restraint devices, but...

Unakafov, A. M., Möller, S., Kagan, I. et al. 2018. Using imaging photoplethysmography for heart rate estimation in non-human primates. PLOS ONE 13(8), e0202581.

For humans and for non-human primates heart rate is a reliable indicator of an individual’s current physiological state, with applications ranging from health checks to experimental studies of cognitive and emotional state. In humans, changes...

Rodrigues, M. V., de Castro, S. O., de Albuquerque, C. Z. 2017. The gingival vein as a minimally traumatic site for multiple blood sampling in guinea pigs and hamsters. PLOS ONE 12(5), e0177967.

Laboratory animals are still necessary in scientific investigation and vaccine testing, but while novel methodological approaches are not available for their replacement, the search for new, humane, easy, and painless methods is necessary to diminish...

Schiffer, K. J., Retz, S. K., Algers, B. 2017. Assessment of stun quality after gunshot used on cattle: a pilot study on effects of diverse ammunition on physical signs displayed after the shot, brain tissue damage and brain haemorrhages. Animal Welfare 26(1), 95-109.

Moving the slaughter process from the abattoir to the animals' familiar environment has the potential to reduce pre-mortal stressors to a minimum and contribute considerably to improved animal welfare at slaughter. On-farm stunning and killing...

Burden, N., Kendrick, J., Knight, L. et al. 2017. Maximizing the success of bile duct cannulation studies in rats: Recommendations for best practice. Laboratory Animals 51(5), 457-464.

Bile duct cannulation (BDC) studies are usually carried out in the rat to support the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion profiling of novel agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals. The different aspects of these studies (e.g. surgical preparation...

Jensen, V. F. H., Mølck, A.-M., Martensson, M. et al. 2017. Assessment of implantable infusion pumps for continuous infusion of human insulin in rats: Potential for group housing. Laboratory Animals 51(3), 273-283.

Group housing is considered to be important for rats, which are highly sociable animals. Single housing may impact behaviour and levels of circulating stress hormones. Rats are typically used in the toxicological evaluation of insulin...

Miranda, A., Pego, J. M., Correia-Pinto, J. 2017. Animal facility videoendoscopic intubation station: Tips and tricks from mice to rabbits. Laboratory Animals 51(2), 204-207.

Endotracheal intubation of laboratory animals is a common procedure shared by several research fields for different purposes, such as mechanical ventilation of anaesthetized animals, instillation of cytotoxic nanoparticles, infectious agents or tumour cells for induction...

Amen, E. M., Brecheisen, M., Sach-Peltason, L. et al. 2017. Refinement of a model of repeated cerebrospinal fluid collection in conscious rats. Laboratory Animals 51(1), 44-53.

The cannulation of the cisterna magna in rats for in vivo sampling of cerebrospinal fluid serves as a valuable model for studying the delivery of new drugs into the central nervous system or disease models...

Lipták, B., Kaprinay, B., Gáspárová, Z. 2017. A rat-friendly modification of the non-invasive tail-cuff to record blood pressure. Lab Animal 46(6), 251-253.

In animal models, blood pressure measurement methods can be either invasive (direct) or non-invasive (indirect). The non-invasive alternative involves applying a tail-cuff for blood pressure measurement. Current standardized restraint methods involve confining the laboratory animal...

Boivin, G. P., Hickman, D. L., Creamer-Hente, M. A. et al. 2017. Review of CO2 as a euthanasia agent for laboratory rats and mice. JAALAS 56(5), 491-499.

Selecting an appropriate, effective euthanasia agent is controversial. Several recent publications provide clarity on the use of CO2 in laboratory rats and mice. This review examines previous studies on CO2 euthanasia and presents the current...