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...

Song, Y., Xie, S. 2024. Effects of substrate roughening on the swimming performance of Schizothorax wangchiachii (Fang, 1936) in the Heishui River: Implications for vertical slot fishway design. Journal of Fish Biology 104(2), 473–483.

Re-establishing the natural connectivity of rivers using fishways may mitigate the unfavourable effects of dam construction on riverine biodiversity and freshwater fish populations. Knowledge of the swimming performance of target species in specific regions is...

Trindade, P. H. E., da Silva, G. V., de Oliveira, F. A. et al. 2024. Ranking bovine pain-related behaviors using a logistic regression algorithm. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 271, 106163.

Pain identification in farm animals is a welfare challenge worldwide. In the last decade, our research team validated the Unesp-Botucatu Cattle Acute Pain Scale (UCAPS) based on specific pain or discomfort behaviors and alterations to...

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...

Gupta, S., Sharma, A., Joy, A. et al. 2023. The impact of heat stress on immune status of dairy cattle and strategies to ameliorate the negative effects. Animals 13(1), 107.

Heat stress (HS) is well known to influence animal health and livestock productivity negatively. Heat stress is a multi-billion-dollar global problem. It impairs animal performance during summer when animals are exposed to high ambient temperatures...

Holhorea, P. G., Felip, A., Calduch-Giner, J. À. et al. 2023. Use of male-to-female sex reversal as a welfare scoring system in the protandrous farmed gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata). Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 1083255.

Gilthead sea bream is a highly cultured marine fish throughout the Mediterranean area, but new and strict criteria of welfare are needed to assure that the intensification of production has no negative effects on animal...

Morgado, J. N., Lamonaca, E., Santeramo, F. G. et al. 2023. Effects of management strategies on animal welfare and productivity under heat stress: A synthesis. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10, 1145610.

Climate change includes different dramatic events, and among them, heat stress exposition is the strongest phenomenon affecting the livestock sector. The effects of heat stress events on animal welfare are complex and the economic impacts...

Pavlenko, A., Kaart, T., Lidfors, L. et al. 2023. Changes in dairy cows’ behaviour, health, and production after transition from tied to loose housing. Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 65(1), 29.

Transition of dairy cows from a tied to a loose housing system may affect their behaviour, health and production. Such housing system changes have become more frequent in Estonia but knowledge is lacking on how...

Silva, W. C. da Silva, J. A. R. da Camargo-Júnior, R. N. C. et al. 2023. Animal welfare and effects of per-female stress on male and cattle reproduction—A review. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10, 1083469.

Thermal stress causes severe effects on the wellbeing and reproduction of cattle, including changes in oogenesis and spermatogenesis, generating great concerns, which last for decades. In cattle, the occurrence of thermal stress is associated with...

Machado, M., Freitas Silveira, R. M., Machado Bittar, C. M. et al. 2023. Can the emotional state of calves be noticed by their facial expression and heart rate? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 260, 105874.

The aim of this study was to identify whether or not dairy calves change their facial expression and heart rate according to their emotional state when subjected to a stroking or umbrella stimulus. Thirty-two mixed-breed...

Ninomiya, S., Goto, Y., Huricha et al. 2023. Lying posture as a behavioural indicator of heat stress in dairy cows. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 265, 105981.

Dairy cows tend to stand as a heat stress response, but the increased tendency to stand adversely affects their productivity and welfare. Thus, taking measures against heat stress before cows spend more time standing is...

Dara, M., Carbonara, P., La Corte, C. et al. 2023. Fish welfare in aquaculture: Physiological and immunological activities for diets, social and spatial stress on Mediterranean aqua cultured species. Fishes 8(8), 414.

Welfare assessment currently is less well-characterized for aquatic animals and the classical methodologies used for terrestrial animals are not adequate to improve our knowledge about fish well-being. Among different approaches, the status of organism responses...

Palacio, S., Zambelis, A., Adam, S. et al. 2023. Reassessing cow comfort measures on Canadian dairy farms after a recommendation of improvements. Canadian Journal of Animal Science 103(2), 174–184.

In a previous study (Assessment 1), an on-farm assessment tool was used to establish a standard across 60 Quebec dairy farms using animal-, stall-, and management-based measures of cow comfort. The objective of the present...

Alvarado, M. V., Felip, A., Espigares, F. et al. 2023. Unexpected appetitive events promote positive affective state in juvenile European sea bass. Scientific Reports 13(1), 22064.

Some animal species exhibit considerable physiological and behavioural alterations in response to captivity. It has been hypothesized, but rarely tested, that such changes reflect a negative affective state that is associated to this specific context...

Ataallahi, M., Cheon, S. N., Park, G.-W. et al. 2023. Assessment of stress levels in lactating cattle: Analyzing cortisol residues in commercial milk products in relation to the temperature-humidity index. Animals 13(15), 2407.

Chronic stress in the dairy cattle industry has negative impacts on animal health, productivity, and welfare. It has been confirmed that cortisol transfers to milk and resists the high temperature during milk processing. This study...

Bakony, M., Kovács, L., Kézér, L. F. et al. 2023. The use of body surface temperatures in assessing thermal status of hutch-reared dairy calves in shaded and unshaded conditions. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.

The study was carried out in a Hungarian large-scale dairy farm during a 5-day period in hot August weather. Altogether 16 preweaning calves were chosen for the study. An agricultural mesh with 80% shielding was...

Brezov, D., Hristov, H., Dimov, D. et al. 2023. Predicting the rectal temperature of dairy cows using infrared thermography and multimodal machine learning. Applied Sciences 13(20), 11416.

The paper proposes an approach for estimating the rectal temperature of dairy cows based on the non-invasive real-time monitoring of their respiration rates and the temperature-humidity index (THI) of the environment, combined with the analysis...

Chiba, Y., Nozaki, I., Itoh, M. et al. 2023. Noninvasive measurement of blood calcium concentration using electrocardiography in peripartum Jersey cows. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.

We previously developed a noninvasive method for measuring blood calcium concentration (Ca) in Holstein cows on site using electrocardiographic (ECG) variables and calving number, based on a high positive correlation between Ca. Jersey cows easily...

da Santa Lopes, T., Costas, B., Ramos-Pinto, L. et al. 2023. Exploring the effects of acute stress exposure on lumpfish plasma and liver biomarkers. Animals 13(23), 3623.

This study aimed to expand knowledge on lumpfish stress physiology by investigating the effects of acute stress on primary (i.e., cortisol) and secondary (e.g., metabolites) stress responses, as well as oxidative stress biomarkers, from stress...

Dara, M., Carbonara, P., La Corte, C. et al. 2023. Fish welfare in aquaculture: Physiological and immunological activities for diets, social and spatial stress on mediterranean aqua cultured species. Fishes 8(8), 414.

Welfare assessment currently is less well-characterized for aquatic animals and the classical methodologies used for terrestrial animals are not adequate to improve our knowledge about fish well-being. Among different approaches, the status of organism responses...

Goma, A. A., Uddin, J., Kieson, E. 2023. Lateralised behavioural responses in livestock to environmental stressors: Implications for using infrared thermography to assess welfare conditions. Animals 13(23), 3663.

Lateralised behavioural responses to environmental stressors have become more frequently used as indicators of social welfare in animals. These lateralised behavioural responses are under the control of asymmetrical brain functions as part of the primary...

Lei, M. C., Félix, L., Cardoso, R. et al. 2023. Non-invasive biomarkers in saliva and eye infrared thermography to assess the stress response of calves during transport. Animals 13(14), 2311.

Animal transport is currently a stressful procedure. Therefore, animal-based indicators are needed for reliable and non-invasive welfare assessment. Saliva is a biospecimen with potential validity for the determination of cortisol and oxidative stress, although its...

Mincu, M., Nicolae, I., Gavojdian, D. 2023. Infrared thermography as a non-invasive method for evaluating stress in lactating dairy cows during isolation challenges. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.
Otten, N. D., Skarbye, A. P., Krogh, M. A. et al. 2023. Monitoring bovine dairy calf health and related risk factors in the first three months of rearing. Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 65(1), 45.

Rearing replacement heifers is pivotal for the dairy industry and is associated with high input costs for the preweaned calves, due to their higher susceptibility to diseases. Ensuring calf health and viability calls for systematic...

Poudel, S., Fike, J. H., Wright, L. et al. 2023. Non-invasive techniques reveal heifer response to fescue endophyte type in grazing studies. Animals 13(14), 2373.

Cattle grazing tall fescue (Schedonorus arundinaceous) infected with wild-type endophytes (WE) leads to a syndrome commonly known as fescue toxicosis. Replacing WE tall fescue with a novel endophyte-infected (NE) tall fescue can mitigate this problem...