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. 
Ausderau, K. K., Colman, R. J., Kabakov, S. et al. 2023. Evaluating depression- and anxiety-like behaviors in non-human primates. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 16, 1006065.

Depression and anxiety are some of the most prevalent and debilitating mental health conditions in humans. They can present on their own or as co-morbidities with other disorders. Like humans, non-human primates (NHPs) can develop...

Ermers, C., McGilchrist, N., Fenner, K. et al. 2023. The fibre requirements of horses and the consequences and causes of failure to meet them. Animals 13(8), 1414.

Failure to meet the minimum forage requirement of 1.5% of the horse’s bodyweight and the opportunity for foraging for a minimum of 8 h a day (not going without this opportunity longer than four to...

Jorge, S., Félix, L., Costas, B. et al. 2023. Housing conditions affect adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) behavior but not their physiological status. Animals 13(6), 1120.

Zebrafish is a valuable model for neuroscience research, but the housing conditions to which it is exposed daily may be impairing its welfare status. The use of environmental enrichment and the refinement of methodology for...

Lutz, C. K., Coleman, K., Hopper, L.M. et al. 2022. Nonhuman primate abnormal behavior: Etiology, assessment, and treatment. American Journal of Primatology 84(6), e23380.

Across captive settings, nonhuman primates may develop an array of abnormal behaviors including stereotypic and self-injurious behavior. Abnormal behavior can indicate a state of poor welfare, since it is often associated with a suboptimal environment...

Schilling, A.-K., Mazzamuto, M. V., Romeo, C. 2022. A review of non-invasive sampling in wildlife disease and health research: What’s new? Animals 12(13), 1719.

In the last decades, wildlife diseases and the health status of animal populations have gained increasing attention from the scientific community as part of a One Health framework. Furthermore, the need for non-invasive sampling methods...

Ruet, A., Arnould, C., Lemarchand, J. et al. 2022. Horse welfare: A joint assessment of four categories of behavioural indicators using the AWIN protocol, scan sampling and surveys. Animal Welfare 31(4), 455–466.

Domesticated horses (Equus caballus) can be exposed to a compromised welfare state and detecting a deterioration in welfare is essential to modify the animals’ living conditions appropriately. This study focused on four categories of behavioural...

Sørensen, D., Cloutier, S., Gaskill, B. (Eds.). 2021. Animal-centric Care and Management - Enhancing Refinement in Biomedical Research. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.

The concept of the 3Rs (Refinement, Reduction and Replacement) has been used as a framework for improving the welfare of laboratory animals for the last half century. By establishing an animal-centric view on housing and...

Zemanova, M. A. 2020. Towards more compassionate wildlife research through the 3Rs principles: Moving from invasive to noninvasive methods. Wildlife Biology 2020(1), no page numbers.

Research in ecology and wildlife biology remains crucial for increasing our knowledge and improving species management and conservation in the midst of the current biodiversity crisis. However, obtaining information on population status often involves invasive...

Lawrence, M. J., Raby, G. D., Teffer, A. K. et al. 2020. Best practices for non-lethal blood sampling of fish via the caudal vasculature. Journal of Fish Biology 97(1), 4–15.

Blood sampling through the caudal vasculature is a widely used technique in fish biology for investigating organismal health and physiology. In live fishes, it can provide a quick, easy and relatively non‐invasive method for obtaining...

Michaels, C. J., Gini, B. F., Clifforde, L. 2020. A persistent abnormal repetitive behaviour in a false water cobra (Hydrodynastes gigas). Animal Welfare 29(4), 371-378.

Stereotypies (a subset of Abnormal Repetitive Behaviour [ARB]) are characterised by an unchanging pattern of behaviour and in captive animals can be associated with poor welfare. Although well known in certain taxa, little is known...

Gomes Correa, M., Ferreira Rodrigues e Silva, C., Antunes Dias, L. et al. 2020. Welfare benefits after the implementation of slow-feeder hay bags for stabled horses. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 38, 61-66.

Horse confinement is a common practice worldwide. However, preventing horses from grazing and denying them social interaction can compromise their welfare and lead to undesirable consequences. Considering the hypothesis that increasing the forage consumption time...

Hanis, F., Chung, E. L. T., Kamalludin, M. H. et al. 2020. Discovering the relationship between dietary nutrients and cortisol and ghrelin hormones in horses exhibiting oral stereotypic behaviors: A review. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 39, 90-98.

This review focuses on associations of cortisol and the hormone ghrelin on abnormal oral behaviors, predominantly stereotypic behavior, in horses. Abnormal oral behaviors are prevalent in the stabled horse population. Feeding practice and satiety seem...

Lesimple, C., Gautier, E., Benhajali, H. et al. 2019. Stall architecture influences horses’ behaviour and the prevalence and type of stereotypies. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 219, 104833.

Despite the spatial and social restrictions it causes, single stall housing still prevails in sport and riding school horses, leading to the emergence of abnormal behaviours such as stereotypic or abnormal repetitive behaviours (SB/ARB). In...

Association of Primate Veterinarians. 2019. Association of Primate Veterinarians’ Position Statement: Cerebrospinal fluid aspiration for nonhuman primates in biomedical research. JAALAS 58(4), 428-429.

The Association of Primate Veterinarians (APV) recognizes that CSF collection may be required for both clinical and research purposes in nonhuman primates (NHP). Because there are inherent risks associated with the technique, the laboratory animal...

Manteca Vilanova, X., De Briyne, N., Beaver, B. et al. 2019. Horse welfare during equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG) production. Animals 9(12), 1053.

Collection of blood from pregnant mares for extraction of equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG) is a critical but relatively unknown and poorly regulated practice in the countries in which it occurs. Equine chorionic gonadotropin is a...

McMillan, F. D. (ed). 2019. Mental Health and Well-being in Animals (2nd ed). CABI, Wallingford, UK.

This second edition is fully revised, expanded, and comprehensively updated with the most current knowledge about the full array of mental health issues seen in animals. Written by key opinion leaders, internationally-recognized experts and specialists...

Briefer Freymond, S., Ruet, A., Grivaz, M. et al. 2019. Stereotypic horses (Equus caballus) are not cognitively impaired. Animal Cognition 22(1), 17–33.

Stereotypies in animals are thought to arise from an interaction between genetic predisposition and sub-optimal housing conditions. In domestic horses, a well-studied stereotypy is crib-biting, an abnormal behaviour that appears to help individuals to cope...

Bacon, H. 2018. Behaviour-based husbandry—A holistic approach to the management of abnormal repetitive behaviors. Animals 8(7), 103.

The field of zoo animal welfare science has developed significantly over recent years. However despite this progress in terms of scientific research, globally, zoo animals still face many welfare challenges. Recently, animal welfare frameworks such...

Lutz, C. K. 2018. A cross-species comparison of abnormal behavior in three species of singly-housed old world monkeys. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 199, 52-58.

Abnormal behavior occurs in a number of captive nonhuman primate species and is often used as an indicator of welfare. However, reported levels of abnormal behavior often vary across species, making general welfare judgments difficult...

Omidi, A., Jafari, R., Nazifi, S. et al. 2018. Potential role for selenium in the pathophysiology of crib-biting behavior in horses. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 23, 10-14.

Crib-biting is a repetitive and compulsive behavior that is characterized by “grasping a fixed object with incisor teeth and aspirating air with an audible grunt.” Little is known about etiology and pathophysiology of crib-biting behavior...

Ekesbo, I., Gunnarsson, S. 2018. Farm Animal Behaviour: Characteristics for Assessment and Welfare (2nd ed). CABI, Wallingford, UK.

Completely updated and revised, and with a new author team, this second edition of Farm Animal Behaviour continues to provide essential information on normal and stereotypic behaviors in a wide variety of farm animals to...

Rapp-Santos, K. J., Altamura, L. A., Norris, S. L. et al. 2017. Comparison of saliva collection methods for the determination of salivary cortisol levels in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis), and African green monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops). JAALAS 56(2), 181-189.

The ability to quickly and accurately determine cortisol as a biomarker for stress is a valuable tool in assessing the wellbeing of NHP. In this study, 2 methods of collecting saliva (a commercial collection device...

Martin, A. L. 2017. Theprimatologist as a behavioral engineer. American Journal of Primatology 79, e22500.

The field of primate behavior management has had only limited success in preventing and treating abnormal behaviors, such as stereotypy and self‐injury, in captive non‐human primates (NHP). In contrast, applied behavior analysts have had great...

Albright, J., Sun, X., Houpt, K. 2017. Does cribbing behavior in horses vary with dietary taste or direct gastric stimuli? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 189, 36-40.

Concentrated feed diets have been shown to drastically increase the rate of the cribbing, an oral stereotypy in horses, but the specific component causing the rise has not been identified. Furthermore, the mechanism through which...

Górecka-Bruzda, A., Jaworski, Z., Suwała, M. et al. 2017. Aversiveness of husbandry procedures for pre-weaned foals: A comparison using behavioural and physiological indices. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 191, 31-38.

Husbandry procedures are necessary for different purposes in horse breeding. The aim of the present study was to assess the aversiveness and effects on the horse-human relationship of a range of common husbandry procedures, in...