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. 

In general, codes that have been designed to safeguard the welfare of animals emphasize the importance of providing an environment that will ensure good health and a normal physiological and physical state, that is, they...

Recent amendments to the Animal Welfare Act will, upon taking effect, require that researchers who maintain nonhuman primates in captivity house their animals in such a way as to “promote their psychological well-being.” Unfortunately, no...

Comprehensive literature review dealing with the following topics: a) Group housing versus single housing; b) Enrichment strategies using inanimate objects; c) Socialization with conspecifics; d) Role of animal care staff.

Dogs in the single cage size spent slightly less time moving, but they moved at a greater speed than when housed in double sized cages [probably because of the extreme confinement condition leading to frustration...

The aims of this contribution are to look at three areas which are addressed by enrichment studies, within the context of a review: (1) the problems produced by spatial restriction, (2) the goals of enrichment...

Good husbandry minimizes variations that can modify an animal's response to experimentation [p. 11]] ...Lighting should be uniformly diffused throughout animal facilities to provide sufficient illumination to aid in maintaining good houskeeping practices, adequate inspection...

Evidence for the hypothesis that brain-opioids mediate social affect and social attachments is summarized. Opiates and opioids are very effective in reducing social separation-induced distress vocalizations (DVs), in puppies, young guinea pigs and chicks, while...

I wrote this book because I believe that the welfare of animals is a very important subject but one about which there is a lot of confusion and muddled thinking. I wanted to great deal...

The preponderance of experimental evidence gathered over the past three decades indicates that exposure to intense noise can lead to a wide variety of functional and structural changes in laboratory animals. Although little information regarding...

After converting our dog holding facilities from commercial dog cages to pen type enclosures, it became apparent that suitable resting platforms were needed. Clear acrylic plastic was used to construct the resting platforms.