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...

Warner-Hough, M. 2024. Enriching the lives of zebra finches. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 12(1) (January/February), 28-30.

Zebra finches are an uncommon animal model in the biomedical industry but are widely used in language development, memory, and learning studies. Native to Australia, they are desert birds that like warm days and 40%+...

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...

Brando, S., Vitale, A., Bacon, M. 2023. Promoting good nonhuman primate welfare outside regular working hours. Animals 13(8), 1423.

Promoting good primate welfare outside of daylight hours is an important task. The responsibility to provide a complex environment and environmental enrichment is an essential element of primate wellbeing programs that should be approached from...

Casalini, A., Gentile, L., Emmanuele, P. et al. 2023. Effects of environmental enrichment on the behavior of Octopus vulgaris in a recirculating aquaculture system. Animals 13(11), 1862.

Octopus vulgaris is a commercially valuable species. It is overexploited in the natural environment and is considered to be an innovative species for aquaculture. However, large-scale farming is generally designed only based on economic requirements...

Foris, B., Sadrzadeh, N., Krahn, J. et al. 2023. The effect of placement and group size on the use of an automated brush by groups of lactating dairy cattle. Animals 13(4), 760.

Mechanical brushes are often provided on dairy farms to facilitate grooming. However, current brush designs do not provide data on their use, and thus little is known about the effects of group size and placement...

Fuller, M. 2023. Sensory enrichment for the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus). Animal Technology and Welfare 22(1), 44–46.

Common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) are New World primates that are found within the coastal rainforests of North East (NE) Brazil. They are a multisensory species, relying on all their senses to survive. It is the...

Kumar, P., Abubakar, A. A., Imlan, J. C. et al. 2023. Importance of knife sharpness during slaughter: Shariah and Kosher perspective and scientific validation. Animals 13(11), 1751.

Halal and kosher slaughter have given the utmost importance to the sharpness of knives during the slaughter of animals. A sharp knife of appropriate dimension (blade length) makes slaughter less painful during neck severance and...

Padalino, B., Benedetti, B., Felici, M. et al. 2023. GLAD scale for ranking welfare of horses on arrival after transport to slaughterhouses. Animals 13(9), 1465.

To date, there is no official method for measuring horse welfare after transport. This study aimed to develop a scale to classify horses into four categories: good shape; light affected; affected; down (GLAD) based on...

Russell, A. L., Randall, L. V., Kaler, J. et al. 2023. Use of qualitative behavioural assessment to investigate affective states of housed dairy cows under different environmental conditions. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10, 1099170.

In addition to the reduction of suboptimal welfare, there is now a need to provide farmed animals with positive opportunities to provide confidence that they have experienced a life worth living. Diversification of the environment...

Meira, J. E. S., Nogueira-Filho, S. L. G., Mendl, M. et al. 2023. Responses to environmental enrichment are associated with personality characteristics in chestnut-bellied seed finches (Sporophila angolensis). Behavioural Processes 204, 104801.

Environmental enrichment (EE) is used to promote natural behaviours in captive animals and may hold promise as a form of pre-release training, a strategy for improving coping skills of translocated birds. We investigated the use...

Bini de Lima, A. C., Sebastião da Fé, V. C., Palermo Hernandes, M. S. et al. 2023. Olfactory stimulation as environmental enrichment for domestic horses—A review. Animals 13(20), 3180

Horses constantly face several challenges inherent to the domestic environment, and it is common for the expression of their natural behavior to be drastically limited. Environmental enrichment has been suggested as an alternative to improve...

dos Santos Lemes Lechuga, K. K., Caldara, F. R., de Castro Burbarelli, M. F. et al. 2023. Music and tactile stimuli during daily milking affect the welfare and productivity of dairy cows. Animals 13(23), 3671.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of tactile stimuli and music during daily milking on the productive, physiological, well-being, and health parameters of dairy cows. The experiment, which lasted 39 days...

Dybdal, N., Horgan, M., Costa, L. et al. 2023. Equine gunshot euthanasia: Creation of a 3D-printed model with integrated sensors for training. Animals 13(16), 2566.

Challenges and issues related to the use of pentobarbital euthanasia and disposal of animal remains within the US have recently been reviewed. Environmental and public health challenges increasingly necessitate consideration of alternative methods such as...

Fletcher, K. A., Limon, G., Padalino, B. et al. 2023. Impact of social buffering and restraint on welfare indicators during uk commercial horse slaughter. Animals 13(14), 2276.

Current legislation in the United Kingdom stipulates that horses should not be slaughtered within sight of one another. However, abattoir personnel anecdotally report that, for semi-feral horses unused to restraint, co-slaughtering alongside a conspecific could...

Gueguen, L., Henry, S., Delbos, M. et al. 2023. Selected acoustic frequencies have a positive impact on behavioural and physiological welfare indicators in thoroughbred racehorses. Animals 13(18), 2970.

(1) Background: Since antiquity, it is considered that sounds influence human emotional states and health. Acoustic enrichment has also been proposed for domestic animals. However, in both humans and animals, effects vary according to the...

Heniff, A. C., Gorges, M. A., Lewbart, G. A. et al. 2023. Evaluation of targeted injections of ivermectin or potassium chloride for euthanasia of anesthetized thorny devil stick insects (Eurycantha calcarata). Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens 4(1), 231–239.

Insects are commonly utilized in biomedical research and have become increasingly popular in museum collections and as pets. Despite this, objective evaluation of insect euthanasia is scarce. This study investigated the effectiveness of targeted injections...

Aigueperse, N., Boyer, V., Vasseur, E. 2023. How outing conditions relate to the motivation of movement-restricted cattle to access an outdoor exercise yard. Behavioural Processes 213, 104957.

Assessing animal motivation to access a given resource is one method available to evaluate what to provide in the living environments of captive animals. Providing increased opportunities for movement can be seen as an important...

Clark, F. E., Chivers, L., Pearson, O. 2023. Material and food exploration by zoo-housed animals can inform cognition and enrichment apparatus design. Zoo Biology 42(1), 26–37.

To robustly study zoo animal cognition and provide effective enrichment, we must provide animals with carefully designed apparatus made from appropriate (safe, attractive, practical) materials. However, all too often, this design phase is overlooked or...

Gardhouse, S., Beaufrere, H., Hawkins, M. G. et al. 2023. Evaluation of oral transmucosal administration of pentobarbital for euthanasia of conscious wild birds. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 26(1), 4–14.

This prospective study evaluated oral transmucosal pentobarbital sodium at three doses in 110 wild-caught wild birds requiring euthanasia. Birds received transmucosal pentobarbital at five (430 mg/kg), six (516 mg/kg), and seven times (602 mg/kg) the...

Greene, L. K., Andriambeloson, J.-B., Blanco, M. B. et al. 2023. Forest access restores foraging and ranging behavior in captive sifakas. Zoo Biology 42(2), 209–222.

Captive wildlife benefit from ecologically informed management strategies that promote natural behaviors. The Duke Lemur Center has pioneered husbandry programs rooted in species’ ecology for a diversity of lemurs, including housing social groups in multiacre...

Libonate, S. T., Suchak, M. 2023. Predictors of the use of enrichment items in colony housed shelter cats. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 26(3), 300–312.

Colony rooms provide cats with many opportunities to use enrichment, but animal shelters usually have finite resources to provision items. This study examined how cats select enrichment items when given a variety of options. Our...

Rossi, A. P., dos Santos, C. R. C., Maia, C. M. et al. 2023. Rescued cats prefer to scratch fabrics commonly used to cover upholstered furniture. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 26(3), 313–324.

Preference responses of cats for scratching fabrics commonly used on furniture were evaluated during four consecutive days in three Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that rescue companion animals. Cats were grouped and their choices were registered at...

Sato, S. T. M., de Farias, M. R., Daros, R. R. 2023. Enrichment sessions as a complementary therapy for hospitalized cats: Implications for stress reduction and sporotrichosis’ lesion recovery. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 269, 106114.

Sporotrichosis treatment in cats requires long-term isolation of infected animals. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of environmental enrichment sessions on the behaviour and lesion progression of cats hospitalized for sporotrichosis...

Vidament, M., Bonneau, C., Lansade, L. 2023. Personality of equids: Donkeys and draught horses behave differently in fear and tactile sensitivity tests. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 269, 106113.

Horses and donkeys are used for agriculture, leisure, urban services and therapy. Although these two species obviously behave differently, it is important to measure their behavioural specificity when tested in the same situations and to...