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. 
Nelson Slater, M., Hauber, M. E. 2017. Olfactory enrichment and scent cue associative learning in captive birds of prey. Zoo Biology 36(2), 120–126.

As the use of enrichment in zoos has become a standardized husbandry practice, the continued improvement of enrichment programs should be concomitant with empirical validation of those practices. The role of scent as enrichment remains...

Carlson, A., Allen, C., Skoumbourdis, E. et al. 2017. Cooked food for non-human primates: A discussion by the Laboratory Animal Refinement & Enrichment Forum. Animal Technology and Welfare 16(2), 124-126.

"Do any of you give cooked food like pasta, potatoes or vegetables to non-human primates? What’s your experience? Do the animals benefit from cooked food; do they like it; does it affect their health in...

Billingham, E. 2017. The curious tale of axolotl enrichment. Animal Technology and Welfare 16(3), 191-194.

Axolotls can be used in scientific research to provide fertilised embryos for investigations into the genetic pathways controlling stem cell development. Breeding animals are housed for several years and environmental enrichment is required to improve...

Spiezio, C., Leonardi, C., Regaiolli, B. 2017. Assessing colour preference in Aldabra giant tortoises (Geochelone gigantea). Behavioural Processes 145, 60-64.

Tortoises perceive different colours and rely on the visual system to find food. However, few studies have considered colour preference in tortoises, especially in land species. The aim of this study is to investigate whether...

Ellis, J. J., Stryhn, H., Spears, J. 2017. Environmental enrichment choices of shelter cats. Behavioural Processes 141, 291-296.

Choices made by cats between different types of environmental enrichment may help shelters to prioritize how to most effectively enrich cat housing, especially when limited by space or funds. This study investigates the environmental enrichment...

Vitale Shreve, K. R., Mehrkam, L. R., Udell, M. A. R. 2017. Social interaction, food, scent or toys? A formal assessment of domestic pet and shelter cat (Felis silvestris catus) preferences. Behavioural Processes 141, 322-328.

Domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) engage in a variety of relationships with humans and can be conditioned to engage in numerous behaviors using Pavlovian and operant methods Increasingly cat cognition research is providing evidence of...

Coleman, K., Novak, M. A. 2017. Environmental enrichment in the 21st century. ILAR Journal 58(2), 295-307.

More than a quarter of a century has elapsed since the Animal Welfare Act mandated that research facilities develop and follow a plan to promote the psychological well-being of captive primates. Since passage of this...

Meagher, R. K., Campbell, D. L. M., Mason, G. J. 2017. Boredom-like states in mink and their behavioural correlates: A replicate study. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 197, 112-119.

Scientists and laypeople have long expressed concern that animals in non-enriched, unchanging environments might experience boredom. However, this had attracted little empirical study: the state is difficult to assess without verbal self-reports, and spontaneous behavioural...

Marini, D., Colditz, I. G., Hinch, G. et al. 2017. Self-administration by consumption of flunixin in feed alleviates the pain and inflammation associated with castration and tail docking of lambs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 188, 26-33.

It can be impractical for farmers to provide pain relief to livestock following husbandryt procedures such as castration and tail-docking, particularly in pasture-based systems because animals need to be repeatedly gathered to handling facilities and...

Mandel, R., Nicol, C. J. 2017. Re-direction of maternal behaviour in dairy cows. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 195, 24-31.

In the milk producing industry, most aspects of maternal behaviour are discouraged, but milk production is actively maintained in the absence of the calf. The process of milk let down, is mediated, at least partly...

Horvath, K., Fernandez, M., Miller-Cushon, E. K. 2017. The effect of feeding enrichment in the milk-feeding stage on the cognition of dairy calves in a T-maze. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 187, 8-14.

In many species, environmental complexity is known to affect cognitive development, yet it is common to house dairy calves individually in restrictive environments. The hypothesis of this study was that providing calves with simple nutritional...

Hempstead, M. N., Waas, J. R., Stewart, M. et al. 2017. Behavioural response of dairy goat kids to cautery disbudding. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 194, 42-47.

Behavioural changes associated with cautery disbudding of female Saanen dairy goat kids were assessed. At 4±2days of age, kids were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups: (i) disbudded with a cautery iron (CAUT...

Sands, C., Evans, C., Buckmaster, C. A. 2017. The grooming sleeve: Encouraging conspecific-like behavior and strengthening the human-animal bond. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 5(2) (June), 52-53.

The act of grooming has been found to greatly decrease stress, heart rate, and cortisol levels in nonhuman primates; this decrease in stress and cortisol is seen in the animal being groomed, as well as...

Monreal-Pawlowsky, T., Marco-Cabedo, V., Manteca, X. et al. 2017. Environmental enrichment facilitates release and survival of an injured loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) after ten years in captivity. Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research 5(4), 182-186.

In June 2006 a loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) was admitted to a rescue centre on the Mediterranean coast with severe fishing net entanglement in its fore right flipper. The flipper could not be saved...

Dantas, L. M., Delgado, M. M, Johnson, I. et al. 2016. Food puzzles for cats: Feeding for physical and emotional wellbeing. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery 18(9), 723-732.

Many pet cats are kept indoors for a variety of reasons (eg, safety, health, avoidance of wildlife predation) in conditions that are perhaps the least natural to them. Indoor housing has been associated with health...

McCarthy, D., Windsor, P. A., Harris, C. et al. 2016. Effect of topically applied anaesthetic formulation on the sensitivity of scoop dehorning wounds in calves. PLOS ONE 11(9), e0163181.

The post-operative effects of three formulations of topical anaesthetic and a cornual nerve block on the sensitivity of scoop dehorning wounds in calves were compared in two trials. In Trial 1, 21 female Holstein dairy...

de Groot, B., Cheyne, S. M. 2016. Does mirror enrichment improve primate well-being? Animal Welfare 25(2), 163-170.

Primates are highly social animals and appropriate enrichment is required to ensure their psychological well-being. Mirrors are sometimes used as social or sensory environmental enrichment. In this paper we investigate the suitability of mirrors as...

Byrd, C. P., Winnicker, C., Gaskill, B. N. 2016. Instituting dark-colored cover to improve central space use within guinea pig enclosure. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 19(4), 408-413.

Domestic guinea pigs (Cavia aperea f. porcellus) in laboratories have been shown to actively avoid the centers of their cages. This experiment tested a novel, dark-colored “shader” placed over the central portion of a cage...

O'Keefe, S. 2016. Non-human primate housing facility at Newcastle University. Animal Technology and Welfare 15(2), 131-132.

Monkeys first arrived in the Comparative Biology Centre (CBC) at Newcastle University in 2000. They were housed in three small separate units consisting of steel and wooden cages. In 2011 a decision was made to...

Kim-McCormack, N. N. E., Smith, C. L., Behie, A. M. 2016. Is interactive technology a relevant and effective enrichment for captive great apes? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 185, 1-8.

All non-human great apes are endangered, and for these animals, captive individuals play an important role in the species’ conservation management plan. Therefore, information about their current enrichment activities is essential for maintaining a healthy...

Bashaw, M. J., Gibson, M. D., Schowe, D. M. et al. 2016. Does enrichment improve reptile welfare? Leopard geckos (Eublepharis macularius) respond to five types of environmental enrichment. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 184, 150-160.

Animal welfare is a high priority for pet owners and accredited zoos and aquariums. Current approaches to measuring welfare focus on identifying consensus among behavioral and physiological indicators of positive and negative emotions. Environmental enrichment...

Januszczak, I. S., Bryant, Z., Tapley, B. et al. 2016. Is behavioural enrichment always a success? Comparing food presentation strategies in an insectivorous lizard (Plica plica). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 183, 95-103.

Staggering food availability through a delivery device is a common way of providing behavioural enrichment as it is usually thought to increase the amount of natural behaviour due to the unpredictability of the food source...

Schwarzer, A., Bergmann, S., Manitz, J. et al. 2016. Behavioral studies on the use of open water basins by American mink (Neovison vison). Journal of Veterinary Behavior 13, 19-26.

The aims of this study were to investigate whether farmed mink use swimming basins as an environmental enrichment factor and to identify layouts suitable to allow mink to perform their characteristic behavior to a large...

Reijgwart, M. L., Vinke, C. M., Hendriksen, C. F. M., et al. 2015. Workaholic ferrets: Does a two-chamber consumer demand study give insight in the preferences of laboratory ferrets (Mustela putorius furo)? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 171, 161-69.

Although provision of environmental enrichment is an effective tool to refine laboratory animal experiments, it is currently unknown which enrichments ferrets prefer. This study aimed to assess the suitability of a closed economy, two-chamber consumer...

Snowdon, C. T., Teie, D., Savage, M. 2015. Cats prefer species-appropriate music. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 166, 106-111.

Many studies have attempted to use music to influence the behavior of nonhuman animals; however, these studies have often led to conflicting outcomes. We have developed a theoretical framework that hypothesizes that in order for...