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. 
Johnson, J. 2023. A new strategy for animal research: Attending to dissent. Animals 13(9), 1491.

Increasingly, ethical concepts ordinarily reserved for the human research setting have been applied to nonhuman animals in research. This comes at the same time as concerns mount over challenges in translating the results of biomedical...

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...

Englund, M. D., Cronin, K. A. 2023. Choice, control, and animal welfare: Definitions and essential inquiries to advance animal welfare science. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.

The ways in which humans can support good welfare for animals in their care is an ongoing subject of debate: some place emphasis on the animals’ physical health; others, on animals’ ability to live “natural...

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...

Fernandez, E. J. 2022. Training as enrichment: A critical review. Animal Welfare 31(1), 1-12.

Husbandry training and environmental enrichment are both important advancements associated with current behavioural welfare practices. Additionally, the use of training procedures has been proposed as a form of enrichment, with the implication that training can...

Eisenbeiser, S., Serbe-Kamp, É., Gage, G. J. et al. 2022. Gills just want to have fun: Can fish play games, just like us? Animals 12(13), 1684.

It is common to observe play in dogs, cats, and birds, but have we been ignoring play in one of the most common house pets of all… fish? Aquarium fish are often used as meditative...

Abazaris, J., Hashway, S. 2022. Vole husbandry at Colorado University Boulder. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 10(4) (July/August), 12-15.

Since they arrived at CU Boulder, we have learned a lot about the voles from the laboratory, other institutions, and our trial-and-error. We hope this information can be helpful to any considering adding voles to...

Adams, C. R., Park, T. J. 2022. The husbandry and management of naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber). Laboratory Animal Science Professional 10(4) (July/August), 16-18.

Naked mole-rats (NMRs) have unique husbandry requirements that need to be considered when maintaining them in captivity. We have successfully maintained NMRs at the University of Illinois at Chicago for more than 20 years. This...

Rose, P. (Ed.) 2022. The Behavioural Biology of Zoo Animals (1st Ed.). CRC Press, Boca Raton, USA. 367 p.

"Zoo animals" as a population are a diverse array of species from all around the globe. When managed in captivity, it is important that key aspects of natural ecology are factored into animal care, as...

Ramos, J., Balasch, J. C., Tort, L. 2021. About welfare and stress in the early stages of fish. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 8, 634434.

In conclusion, the investigations carried out up to now demonstrate that during the early stages fish show high sensitivity to many types of stressors involving an array of responses to overcome alterations that could affect...

Shyan-Norwalt, M. 2021. Applications of behavioral training to laboratory animals. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 9(1) (January/February), 13-15.

How many of us have had this experience? We go to a conference, we read an article, we watch a video. We understand operant conditioning. We grasp the concepts behind clicker training, target training, and...

Buehler, A. 2021. The basics: Getting started with animal training in LAS. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 9(1) (January/February), 17-19.

Professional animal trainer now Animal Health Technician explains various animal training terms and concepts.

Coleman, K., Shapiro, S. J. (Eds.). 2021. Behavioral Biology of Laboratory Animals (1st ed). CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.

This 30-chapter volume informs students and professionals about the behavioral biology of animals commonly housed in laboratory and other captive settings. Each species evolved under specific environmental conditions, resulting in unique behavioral patterns, many of...

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...

Hambrecht, S., Oerke, A.-K., Heistermann, M. et al. 2021. Effects of positive reinforcement training and novel object exposure on salivary cortisol levels under consideration of individual variation in captive African elephants (Loxodonta africana). Animals 11(12), 3525.

Dealing with potential stress in species that have high husbandry requirements, such as elephants, is a challenge for zoos. The objective of the present study was to determine whether positive reinforcement training (PRT) and exposure...

Melfi, V. A., Dorey, N. R., Ward, S. (Eds.) 2020. Zoo Animal Learning and Training. John Wiley & Sons: Hoboken, NJ, 384 pp.

Comprehensively explains animal learning theories and current best practices in animal training within zoos. This accessible, up-to-date book on animal training in a zoo/aquaria context provides a unified approach to zoo animal learning, bringing together...

Sharma, N., Sharma Pokharel, S., Kohshima S. et al. 2020. Behavioural responses of free-ranging Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) towards dying and dead conspecifics. Primates 61(1), 129–138.

Reactions to dying and dead conspecifics have been observed in many non-human animals. Elephants, particularly African elephants, are thought to have an awareness of the death of their conspecifics, as they show compassionate behaviour towards...

Veasey, J. 2020. Assessing the psychological priorities for optimising captive Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) welfare. Animals 10(1), 39.

The welfare status of elephants under human care has been a contentious issue for two decades or more in numerous western countries. Much effort has gone into assessing the welfare of captive elephants at individual...

Webber, C., Lee, P. 2020. Play in elephants: Wellbeing, welfare or distraction? Animals 10(2), 305.

We explore elephant play behaviour since (a) play has been proposed to represent a potential welfare indicator; and (b) play has been associated with long-term survival in the wild. We categorised play into four types...

Watson, H. A study into viable wooden enrichment objects for Syrian hamsters. Animal Technology and Welfare 19(1), 86-88.

Failing to provide hamsters with a method to wear down their teeth can lead to detrimental behaviour such as bar chewing, and health issues, for example, overgrown teeth and tooth loss. However, hamsters use their...

Browning, H. 2020. The natural behavior debate: Two conceptions of animal welfare. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 23(3), 325-337.

The performance of natural behavior is commonly used as a criterion in the determination of animal welfare. This is still true, despite many authors having demonstrated that it is not a necessary component of welfare...

Skidmore, T., Roe, E. 2020. A semi-structured questionnaire survey of laboratory animal rehoming practice across 41 UK animal research facilities. PLOS ONE 15(6): e0234922.

If a laboratory animal survives an experiment without lasting compromised welfare, its future must be negotiated. Rehoming may be a consideration. This paper reports on research findings that provide an indication of the uptake of...

Hambrecht, S., Oerke, A.‐K., Heistermann, M. et al. 2020. Diurnal variation of salivary cortisol in captive African elephants (Loxodonta africana) under routine management conditions and in relation to a translocation event. Zoo Biology 39(3), 186–196.

The present study assessed the diurnal variation in salivary cortisol in captive African elephants during routine management (baseline) and in relation to a potential stressor (translocation) to evaluate to what extent acute stress may affect...

Mwobobia, R., Abelson, K., Kanui, T. 2020. Housing behaviour of the naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber) under laboratory conditions. Scandinavian Journal of Laboratory Animal Science 46(1), 16-24.

The naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber) is a rodent that has gained importance as a biomedical research model for various conditions including hypoxic brain injury, cancer and nociception. It is captured from the wild and...

Callealta, I., Lueders, I., Luther-Binoir, I. et al. 2020. Positive reinforcement conditioning as a tool for frequent minimally invasive blood and vaginal swab sampling in African lions (Panthera leo). Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 23(4), 508-519.

Information regarding the physiology of African lions is scarce, mainly due to challenges associated with essential routine research procedures. The aim of this experiment was to test the possibility of training six captive lionesses by...