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. 
Herlofson, E. A. G., Tavola, F., Engdahl, K. S. et al. 2023. Evaluation of primary wound healing and potential complications after perioperative infiltration with lidocaine without adrenaline in surgical incisions in dogs and cats. Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 65(1), 21.

Pre-emptive local analgesia with the use of lidocaine is practised increasingly in veterinary medicine as part of applied multimodal analgesia, despite its controversial impact on wound healing. The purpose of this prospective, randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled...

Maidanskaia, E. G., Mirra, A., Marchionatti, E. et al. 2023. Antinociceptive, sedative and excitatory effects of intravenous butorphanol administed alone or in combination with detomidine in calves: A prospective, randomized, blinded cross-over study. Animals 13(12), 1943.

The diagnostic and therapeutic procedures performed under sedation or general anesthesia in bovines are numerous. The analgesic drugs that can be legally used are few, making perioperative analgesia challenging. (2) Methods: Calves were administered butorphanol...

Vullo, C., Falcone, A., Marino, G. et al. 2023. Comparison between the effects of epidural lidocaine, tramadol, and lidocaine–tramadol on postoperative pain in cats undergoing elective orchiectomy. Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 65(1), 33.

In veterinary clinical practice, orchiectomy is one of the most common surgical procedures for cats and is performed mainly in young animals. The purpose of this study was to compare three different epidural (EP) analgesic...

Windsor, P. A. 2022. Role of topical anaesthesia in pain management of farm animals, a changing paradigm. Animals 12(18), 2459.

Field evidence indicates that livestock producers are motivated by access to products that readily deliver pain management during husbandry interventions and, more recently, viral epidermal infectious diseases, including FMD. There has been impressive adoption in...

Wahltinez, S. J., Stacy, N. I., Hadfield, C. A. et al. 2022. Perspective: Opportunities for advancing aquatic invertebrate welfare. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 973376.

Welfare considerations and regulations for invertebrates have lagged behind those for vertebrates, despite invertebrates comprising more than 95% of earth’s species. Humans interact with and use aquatic invertebrates for exhibition in zoos and aquaria, as...

Argüelles, J., Echaniz, M., Bowen, J. et al. 2021. The impact of a stress-reducing protocol on the quality of pre-anaesthesia in cats. Veterinary Record 188(12), e138.

Introduction: Transport to the clinic is a major source of stress for cats. The process involves being put into a carrier, driven in a car and handled. Cats are therefore removed from the safe-haven of...

Hausmann, J. C., Krisp, A. R., Mans, C. et al. 2021. Analgesic efficacy of tramadol and morphine in White's tree frogs (Litoria caerulea). JAALAS 60(6), 681-686.

Published data are sparse regarding the recognition of clinically relevant pain and appropriate analgesia in amphibians. The amphibian analgesia literature has primarily focused on nociceptive pathways in a single species, the northern leopard frog (Rana...

Rasys, A. M., Divers, S. J., Lauderdale, J. D. et al. 2020. A systematic study of injectable anesthetic agents in the brown anole lizard (Anolis sagrei). Laboratory Animals 54(3), 281–292.

Anolis lizards have served as important research models in fields ranging from evolution and ecology to physiology and biomechanics. However, anoles are also emerging as important models for studies of embryo development and tissue regeneration...

Dholakia, U., Seddighi, R., Odunayo, A. et al. 2019. Prolonged anesthetic recovery after continuous infusion of midazolam in 2 domestic cats (Felis catus). Comparative Medicine 69(4), 321–326.

Two healthy research cats involved in a randomized, blinded prospective pharmacodynamics study evaluating midazolam continuous-rate infusion as a means to decrease sevoflurane concentrations experienced unexpectedly prolonged recoveries. Midazolam loading doses, infusion rates, and the targeted...

Bressan, T. F., Sobreira, T., Carregaro, A. B. 2019. Use of rodent sedation tests to evaluate midazolam and flumazenil in green iguanas (Iguana iguana). JAALAS 58(6), 810–816.

This study aimed to evaluate the applicability of rodent behavioral tests to assess the effects of midazolam and flumazenil in green iguanas. Four tests commonly used to assess sedation in rodents—the open field test, forced...

Morrison, K.E., Strahl-Heldreth, D. Clark-Price, S.C. 2016. Isoflurane, sevoflurane and desflurane use in cane toads (Rhinella marina). Veterinary Record Open 3(1), e000185.

Anaesthetic chamber concentrations of isoflurane, sevoflurane and desflurane that resulted in loss of righting reflex within 15 minutes in 50 per cent of toads (Rhinella marina) exposed (ED50-LRR