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...

Miller, R., Grott, A., Patzkéwitsch, D. et al. 2023. Behavior of piglets in an observation arena before and after castration with local anesthesia. Animals 13(3), 529.

Surgical castration of piglets is generally recognized as a painful procedure, but there is currently no gold standard for the assessment of pain behavior in piglets. However, pain assessment is essential for evaluating the effectiveness...

Prior, S., Blackie, N., Fishwick, J. et al. 2023. Randomised control trial investigating the efficacy of meloxicam and sodium salicylate non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for calf cautery disbudding. Animals 13(11), 1768.

Disbudding calves using hot iron cautery is a routine management procedure to destroy the germinal cells around the horn bud in calves. It is recommended that NSAIDs are used in conjunction with local anaesthesia to...

Robles, I., Luna, S. P. L., Trindade, P. H. E. et al. 2023. Validation of the Unesp-Botucatu pig composite acute pain scale (UPAPS) in piglets undergoing castration. PLOS ONE 18(4), e0284218.

To accurately assess pain and support broadly-based analgesic protocols to mitigate swine pain, it is imperative to develop and validate a species-specific pain scale. The objective of this study was to investigate the clinical validity...

Van Kerschaver, C., Turpin, D., Michiels, J. et al. 2023. Reducing weaning stress in piglets by pre-weaning socialization and gradual separation from the sow: A review. Animals 13(10), 1644.

The weaning of pigs in most commercial pork production systems is an abrupt event performed at a fairly young age, i.e., mostly between 2.5 and 5 weeks of age. This practice induces a stress response...

Vicentini, R. R., El Faro, L., Ujita, A. et al. 2023. Effects of training for first milking involving positive tactile stimulation on post-calving maternal behaviors in primiparous gyr dairy cows. Animals 13(5), 921.

In dairy systems with Zebu breeds, calves are not immediately separated from their dams after calving; consequently, maternal care and protective behavior are important, influencing both productive performance and stockpeople’s safety. Our objectives were to...

Brando, S., Norman, M. 2023. Handling and training of wild animals: Evidence and ethics-based approaches and best practices in the modern zoo. Animals 13(14), 2247.

There is an ethical responsibility to provide all animals living in human care with optimal and positive well-being. As animals living in zoos and aquariums frequently interact with their human caregivers as part of their...

Buckham-Sporer, K., Earley, B., Marti, S. 2023. Current knowledge on the transportation by road of cattle, including unweaned calves. Animals 13(21), 3393.

Transport conditions have the potential to alter the physiological responses of animals to the psychological or physical stress of transport. Transportation may introduce multiple physical and psychological stressors to unweaned calves and adult cattle, including...

D’Alessio, R. M., McAloon, C. G., Boyle, L. A. et al. 2023. Comparison between two scoring methods to assess tail damage of docked pig carcasses during postmortem inspection in Ireland. Veterinary Record Open 10(2), e66.

Background Tail inspection in the abattoir is a tool to help determine the welfare status of pigs. However, methodologies vary widely. Moreover, meat inspection is moving from palpation and incision towards visual-only (VIS) examination. This...

Pretorius, Y., Eggeling, T., Ganswindt, A. 2023. Identifying potential measures of stress and disturbance during a captive to wild African elephant reintegration. PLOS ONE 18(10), e0291293.

There is increasing evidence of compromised welfare for elephants managed in captivity. Should such facilities eventually close, more elephants will need to be rehabilitated and reintegrated into the wild. The goal of such reintegration would...

Wang, C., Yang, C., Zeng, Y. et al. 2023. GnRH-immunocastration: An alternative method for male animal surgical castration. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.
Crone, C., Caldara, F. R., Martins, R. et al. 2023. Environmental enrichment for pig welfare during transport. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 26(3), 393–403.

This study aimed to assess the effects of environmental enrichment for pigs during transportation in different phases of their productive cycle. Two trials were conducted, the first during transportation of pigs from the piglet production...

Glover, R. S., Stephen, A. 2023. A novel automatic release cage increases survival of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) smolts released at night. Journal of Fish Biology 103(6), 1560–1564.

Trap-and-transport of migratory fish is commonly used to bypass in-river obstructions. On the River Conon in Scotland, Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) smolts are transported around two hydropower facilities. Smolt release occurs during daylight, when predation...

Kim, J., Lee, J., Kang, K. et al. 2023. Effects of sling belt provision on behaviour, skin lesions, and salivary cortisol level in growing pigs after transport and regrouping. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 269, 106116.

The provision of enrichment material has been widely recommended to mitigate stress and minimise aggressive behaviour as well as enhance the welfare of pigs after transport and regrouping. In this study, we assessed the effects...

Pierdon, M. K., Berdahl, S. E. 2023. Effect of topical spray containing lidocaine on piglet behaviour post castration. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 26(2), 195–204.

Previous studies examining the impact of topical lidocaine spray on postcastration pain behavior in piglets used scan sampling for the collection of behavior data. This methodology led to inconclusive results on the efficacy of topical...

Vonk, J., Truax, J., McGuire, M. C. 2022. A food for all seasons: Stability of food preferences in gorillas across testing methods and seasons. Animals 12(6), 685.

Decisions about which foods to use during training and enrichment for captive animals may be based on invalid assumptions about individuals’ preferences. It is important to assess the stability of food preferences given that one-time...

Lou, M. E., Kleinhenz, M. D., Schroeder, R. et al. 2022. Evaluating the utility of a CO2 surgical laser for piglet tail docking to reduce behavioral and physiological indicators of pain and to improve wound healing: A pilot study. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 254, 105720.

In the U.S. millions of commercially raised piglets are routinely tail docked. Human and veterinary medical patients experienced reduced inflammation, healing time and post-procedural pain using a CO2 surgical laser compared to standard surgical instruments...

Schoiswohl, J., Stanitznig, A., Smetanig, C. et al. 2022. Comparison of alternative methods for thermal disbudding in calves. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 51, 35-42.

Calves are frequently disbudded to reduce the number of injuries due to horns to other animals and farm workers. The most commonly used method is thermal disbudding which is increasingly causing animal welfare concerns (Stafford...

Bučková, K., Moravcsíková, Á., Šárová, R. et al. 2022. Indication of social buffering in disbudded calves. Scientific Reports 12(1), 13348.

Most dairy calves are housed individually in early ontogeny but social housing has positive effects on calf welfare including an advantage of social buffering, i.e., when negative effects of stress are mitigated through social support...

Coutant, M., Malmkvist, J., Kaiser, M. et al. 2022. Piglets’ acute responses to local anesthetic injection and surgical castration: Effects of the injection method and interval between injection and castration. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 1009858.

Although applied in some countries, efficacy of local anesthetics based on procaine to mitigate acute responses to piglet castration remains questioned. This paper presents results from a factorial study examining the effects of two methods...

Curtis, A. K., Jones, D. E., Kleinhenz, M. et al. 2022. Delivering an immunocastration vaccine via a novel subcutaneous implant. Animals 12(19), 2698.
O’Malley, C. I., Hubley, R., Tambadou, H. et al. 2022. Refining restraint techniques for research pigs through habituation. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 1016414.

Pigs are common research models and are strong animals that can be difficult to restrain. Improper restraint can put pigs and research personnel at risk for injury and induce stress, which can affect research outcomes...

Söbbeler, F. J., Wendt, S., Briese, A. et al. 2022. Comparative study of pain-related responses of male piglets up to seven days of age to the application of different local anaesthetics and subsequent castration. Animals 12(20), 2833.

To evaluate pain responses to intratesticular and subscrotal injection of three local anaesthetics and their efficacy during castration a randomized controlled study was conducted. In groups of 20 piglets, procaine (2%), lidocaine (2%), or mepivacaine...

Skade, L., Kristensen, C. S., Nielsen, M. B. F. et al. 2021. Effect of two methods and two anaesthetics for local anaesthesia of piglets during castration. Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 63, 1.

Since January 2019, surgical castration of male piglets must be performed using local anaesthesia, if farmers deliver pigs to the primary exporting slaughterhouses according to the “Danish quality scheme”; a voluntary initiative taken by the...