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. 
Quadarella, M. A., Kundu, M. C., Alderfer, T. K. et al. 2016. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 4(4) (December), 47-49.

Our goal was to improve dog socialization by increasing novel human interactions, while also providing non-animal care staff opportunity to interact with the dogs. Our volunteer dog socialization program was developed to explore the possibility...

Ma, B., Green, J., Sizemore, S. et al. 2016. Variation on providing research dog enrichment. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 4(2) (June), 50-51.

In order to provide research dogs enrichment at our facility, veterinary staff suggested adapting the adjacent space to our dog housing buildings to allow for more species-specific behavior by creating an exercise area that both...

Prior, H., Bottomly, A., Champéroux, P. et al. 2016. Social housing of non-rodents during cardiovascular recordings in safety pharmacology and toxicology studies. Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods 81, 75-87.

Introduction: The Safety Pharmacology Society (SPS) and National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) conducted a survey and workshop in 2015 to define current industry practices relating to housing...

Sadekova, N., Boudreau, G., Jalbert, B. et al. 2016. The effects of housing conditions on baseline cardiovascular parameters and the sensitivity to detect changes in contractility in telemetry-implanted dogs. Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods 81, 60-74.

Introduction: There is a growing weight of evidence to suggest that myocardial contractility is an important parameter to assess as part of IND enabling studies in addition to standard assessments as per the ICH S7A...

Horowitz, A., Hecht, J. 2016. Examining dog–human play: The characteristics, affect, and vocalizations of a unique interspecific interaction. Animal Cognition 19(4), 779–788.

Despite the growing interest in research on the interaction between humans and dogs, only a very few research projects focus on the routines between dogs and their owners. In this study, we investigated one such...

Kiddie, J., Collins, L. 2015. Identifying environmental and management factors that may be associated with the quality of life of kenneled dogs (Canis familiaris). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 167, 43-55.

This paper describes the use of a validated quality of life assessment tool (described elsewhere) to identify environmental and management factors that may affect quality of life in dogs kennelled in rehoming centres. Dogs were...

Caron, A., Lelong, C., Pascual, M. H. et al. 2015. Miniaturized blood sampling techniques to benefit reduction in mice and refinement in nonhuman primates: Application to bioanalysis in toxicity studies with antibody-drug conjugates. JAALAS 54(2), 145-152.

Minimizing the number of animals in regulatory toxicity studies while achieving study objectives to support the development of future medicines contributes to good scientific and ethical practices. Recent advances in technology have enabled the development...

Konok, V., Nagy, K., Miklosi, A. 2015. How do humans represent the emotions of dogs? The resemblance between the human representation of the canine and the human affective space. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 162, 37-46.

As (critical) anthropomorphism provides a useful hypothesis for looking at animal behavior, people's reports about how they see animals' emotions can provide a start point in the direction of experiment-oriented studies. It has been shown...

Bayne, K. A., Beaver, B. V., Mench, J. A. et al. 2015. Laboratory animal behavior. In: Laboratory Animal Medicine, 3rd edition. Fox, J. G., Anderson, L., Otto, G., et al. (eds). Elsevier, Inc., Amsterdam, NL. pp. 1617-1651.

The study of laboratory animal behavior has increased steadily over the last decade, with expanding emphasis on a variety of commonly used species. In the United States, this trend was initially focused on species for...

Pizzi, R., Dowling, A., Brown, D. et al. 2015. Facial thermography is not useful in assessing body temperature in common squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) in comparison to rectal temperatures. Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research 3(3), 94-98.

A group of 39 captive common squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) had their body temperature measurements compared by rectal thermometry and facial infrared thermal imaging (Flir i3, Flir Systems Inc). Squirrel monkeys were caught up and...

Hall, L. E., Robinson, S., Buchanan-Smith, H. E. 2015. Refining dosing by oral gavage in the dog: A protocol to harmonise welfare. Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods 72, 35-46.

Introduction: The dog is a frequently-used, non-rodent species in the safety assessment of new chemical entities. We have a scientific and ethical obligation to ensure that the best quality of data is achieved from their...

Grigg, E.K., Piehler, M. 2015. Influence of dog appeasing pheromone (DAP) on dogs housed in a long-term kennelling facility. Veterinary Record Open 2(1), e000098.

Introduction: Kennel facilities are commonly acknowledged as a stressful environment for many domestic dogs (Canis familiaris). One therapeutic measure used to reduce anxiety in dogs is dog appeasing pheromone (DAP), which has been found effective...

Washburn, D. 2015. The four Cs of psychological wellbeing: Lessons from three decades of computer-based environmental enrichment. Animal Behavior and Cognition 2(3), 218–232.

Three decades ago, the Animal Welfare Act was amended to require researchers to provide environments that promoted the psychological, as well as the physical, wellbeing of nonhuman primates maintained for research purposes. We developed a...

Zenithson, Y. G., Pierce, B. J., Otto, C. M. et al. 2014. The effect of dog-human interaction on cortisol and behavior in registered animal-assisted activity dogs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 159, 69-81.

The effect of animal-assisted activities (AAA) on the animal participants has been minimally investigated, and the welfare of these animals has been questioned. To enhance our understanding of these animals’ welfare, we measured cortisol collected...

Walker, J. K., Waran, N. K., Phillips, C. J. C. 2014. The effect of conspecific removal on the behaviour and physiology of pair-housed shelter dogs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 158, 46-56.

Dogs (Canis familiaris) are a highly social species and within a shelter environment pair-housing is recommended to prevent the stress associated with social isolation. Separation of individuals which may have formed bonds in this environment...

Burlingame, L. A., Na, J., Dunbar, M. et al. 2014. Behavioral ethogram as a health assessment tool in a feline vaccine study. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 610. (Abstract #P227).

For infectious disease studies, assessment of feline health is traditionally limited to metrics such as body temperature (BT), change in body weight (BW), and clinical signs (CS). Recently, behavioral ethograms designed for assessment of rabbits...

Monts de Oca, N., Diaz, L., McMahen, D. et al. 2014. The use of lean management principles to enhance a nonhuman primate environmental enrichment program. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 580-581. (Abstract #P122).

Sewage back-up and overflows in the rooms of our primate facility initiated an analysis of the factors contributing to the clogging of the drains. An investigation reviewing the materials responsible for the clogging of the...

Rose, A. M., Ferrecchia, C. E., Van Andel, R. 2014. Developing an enrichment plan for water-regulated nonhuman primates. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 565 (Abstract #P60).

Environmental enrichment for nonhuman primates is an essential requirement in laboratory animal research. The Animal Welfare Regulations and the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals state that the facility’s enrichment program must...

Kuhnea, F., Hlerb, J. C., Struweb, R. 2014. Emotions in dogs being petted by a familiar or unfamiliar person: Validating behavioural indicators of emotional states using heart rate variability. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 161, 113-120.

Although physical human–dog interactions have an important influence on the human–dog relationship, few studies have proposed the key factors of physical human–dog contact affecting the well-being of dogs. Therefore, our aim was to investigate the...

Willey, S. 2014. Nonhuman primate enrichment room planning, design, and use. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 539 (Abstract #PS52).

Princeton University continually makes efforts to improve and enhance the quality of life of our NHPs used in research. A part of this effort is to continue to improve our environmental enrichment program, promoting the...

Mariti, C., Carlone, B., Ricci, E. et al. 2014. Intraspecific attachment in adult domestic dogs (Canis familiaris): Preliminary results. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 152, 64-72.

Canis familiarisis a highly social species. Among the social relationships between two individuals, a particular case is represented by attachment bonds. The aim of the current study was to assess whether the bond between adult...

Wagner, D., Newbury, S., Kass, P. et al. 2014. Elimination behavior of shelter dogs housed in double compartment kennels. PLOS ONE 9(5), e96254.

For animals in confinement housing the housing structure has tremendous potential to impact well being. Dogs in animal shelters are often housed in one of two types of confinement housing – single kennels and rooms...

Qi, K., De-mi, S., Chuan, Q. 2014. Current understanding and use of environmental enrichment in China. Enrichment Record 20, 8-11.

In practice, consideration is given to providing most of the species used in research,testing and education withsome level of environmental enrichment. However, although the current level of awareness and understanding about the benefits of environmental...

Normando, S., Contiero, B., Marchesini, G. et al. 2014. Effects of space allowance on the behaviour of long-term housed shelter dogs. Behavioural Processes 103, 306-314.

The aim of this study was to assess the effects of space allowance (4.5 m(2)/head vs. 9 m(2)/head) on the behaviour of shelter dogs (Canis familiaris) at different times of the day (from 10:30 to...

Flink, K., Castonguay, S. 2014. From the kennel to the couch: The transition of dogs from research to home. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 540 (Abstract #PS57).

Adoption of research dogs to private homes is increasingly common; however, the transition can be stressful. Our teaching dog program prepares former laboratory dogs for adoption by introducing challenges experienced in a home setting. All...