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. 
Bodden, C., Wewer, M., Kästner, N. et al. 2021. Not all mice are alike: Mixed-strain housing alters social behaviour. Physiology & Behavior 228, 113220.

The use of millions of mice in scientific studies worldwide emphasises the continuing need for a reduction of sample sizes, however, not at the expense of scientific validity. Split-plot designs have been suggested to enhance...

Shepley, E., Lensink, J., Vasseur, E. 2020. Cow in Motion: A review of the impact of housing systems on movement opportunity of dairy cows and implications on locomotor activity. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 230, 105026.

As humans, we recognize the importance of exercise. We go to the gym, walk our dogs, and ride our horses. Even our hamsters get a wheel to run on. Considering this, it is surprising that...

Sadiq, M. B., Ramanoon, S. Z., Mansor, R. et al. 2020. Claw trimming as a lameness management practice and the association with welfare and production in dairy cows. Animals 10(9), 1515.

Lameness resulting from claw lesions remains a pressing welfare issue in dairy cows. Claw trimming (CT) is a common practice for prevention and management of clinically lame cows. This review summarizes the results of studies...

Zobel, G., Proudfoot, K., Cave, V. et al. 2020. The use of hides during and after calving in New Zealand dairy cows. Animals 10(12), 2255.

Isolation during calving is a common dairy cow behavior, however it has not been examined in large outdoor group settings. The provision of “hides” was monitored for its impact on calving location and cow–calf behavior...

Felgenhauer, J. L., Brune, J. E., Long, M. E. et al. 2020. Evaluation of nutritional gel supplementation in C57BL/6J mice infected with mouse-adapted Influenza A/PR/8/34 virus. Comparative Medicine 70(6), 471-486.

Mice are a common animal model for the study of influenza virus A (IAV). IAV infection causes weight loss due to anorexia and dehydration, which can result in early removal of mice from a study...

Oehm, A. W., Jensen, K. C., Tautenhahn, A. et al. 2020. Factors associated with lameness in tie stall housed dairy cows in south Germany. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 7, 601640.

Lameness remains a major concern for animal welfare and productivity in modern dairy production. Even though a trend toward loose housing systems exists and the public expects livestock to be kept under conditions where freedom...

Pallas, B. D., Keys, D. M., Bradley, M. P. et al. 2020. Compressed paper as an alternative to corn cob bedding in mouse (Mus musculus) cages. JAALAS 59(5), 496-502.

Bedding material is a critical component of the mouse environment and affects animal wellbeing and research integrity. Corn cob (CC) bedding has been a common bedding choice in research despite several potential negative aspects of...

Baker, K. C. 2020. Cage position and response to humans in singly-housed rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). JAALAS 59(5), 503-507.

Traditional laboratory caging for nonhuman primates is typically configured in a 2-tiered manner, with caging arranged in 2 horizontal rows stacked vertically. Studies of the effects of cage row have yielded inconsistent results with respect...

Cantara, S. I., Blas-Machado, U., Zhao, X. et al. 2020. Comparative effects of 1/4-inch and 1/8-inch corncob bedding on cage ammonia levels, behavior, and respiratory pathology of male C57BL/6 and 129S1/Svlm mice. JAALAS 59(6), 695-702.

Corncob is a common bedding material used in laboratory rodents, but little is known about differences in the effects of the 2 available sizes on rodent models and health. This study compared the effects of...

Saha, C. K., Yi, Q., Janke, D. et al. 2020. Opening size effects on airflow pattern and airflow rate of a naturally ventilated dairy building—A CFD study. Applied Sciences 10(17), 6054.

Airflow inside naturally ventilated dairy (NVD) buildings is highly variable and difficult to understand due to the lack of precious measuring techniques with the existing methods. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was applied to investigate the...

van Erp-van der Kooij, E., Almalik, O., Cavestany, D. et al. 2019. Lying postures of dairy cows in cubicles and on pasture. Animals 9(4), 183.

Cows housed indoors with cubicles are probably more restricted in their choice of lying posture and orientation compared with cows housed on pasture. We therefore compared lying postures on pasture in Uruguay and the Netherlands...

Mattachini, G., Pompe, J., Finzi, A. et al. 2019. Effects of feeding frequency on the lying behavior of dairy cows in a loose housing with automatic feeding and milking system. Animals 9(4), 121.

Management systems in modern dairy farms is an important issue in relation to animal comfort and welfare. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of feed delivery frequency on the behavior patterns...

Al-Marashdeh, O., Cameron, K. C., Bryant, R. H. et al. 2019. Effects of surface type in an uncovered stand-off pad system on comfort and welfare of non-lactating dairy cows during winter. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 211, 17-24.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of stand-off surface type on cow lying behaviour, cleanliness and lameness. One hundred and sixty Friesian × Jersey crossbreed, pregnant non-lactating dairy cows were blocked...

Vindevoghel, T. V., Fleming, P. A., Hyndman, T. H. et al. 2019. Qualitative Behavioural Assessment of Bos indicus cattle after surgical castration. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 211, 95-102.

There are various methods to perform castration of cattle, but surgical castration is the most common. Although it is well documented that surgical procedures inflict pain, analgesic use is usually omitted for surgical castration of...

O’Driscoll, K., Lewis, E., Kennedy, E. 2019. Effect of feed allowance at pasture on the lying behaviour of dairy cows. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 213, 40-46.

In temperate climates where cows are primarily managed at pasture shortages of grass could result in nutritional deficits for the cow and may have a variety of behavioural consequences. Lying behaviour is one of the...

Tuomisto, L., Huuskonen, A., Jauhiainen, L. et al. 2019. Finishing bulls have more synchronised behaviour in pastures than in pens. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 213, 26-32.

The objective of the present study was to compare the synchronisation of the lying, feeding and standing behaviour of bulls housed in an uninsulated barn and in a pasture. Dairy (Ayrshire and Holstein-Friesian) and beef...

Grau, C., Leclercq, J., Descout, E. et al. 2019. Ethanol and a chemical from fox faeces modulate exploratory behaviour in laboratory mice. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 213, 117-123.

Mice are macrosmatic animals that use olfaction as their main source of information to increase fitness; they process predator cues to assess risk, and plants and fruit cues to find nutritional resources and assess their...

Orihuela, A., Galina, C. S. 2019. Effects of separation of cows and calves on reproductive performance and animal welfare in tropical beef cattle. Animals 9(5), 223.

Nursing a calf suppresses postpartum ovarian activity prolonging the period of anestrus. Diverse methods are used to reduce the effect of suckling; the most popular, restricted suckling, reduces the number of encounters mother-calf. Temporal weaning...

O'Connor, C., Dowling, S., Cave, V. et al. 2019. Cow lying behaviour and bedding quality changes during five weeks on a stand-off pad. Animals 9(5), 257.

Bedding quality and cow lying time were measured during five weeks in a normal farm practice (NFP) off-paddock system with no bedding refreshment. Two groups of 100 non-lactating dairy cows were compared to groups of...

LaFollette, M. R., Swan, M. P., Smith, R. K. et al. 2019. The effects of cage color and light intensity on rat affect during heterospecific play. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 219, 104834.

Environmental enrichment provides physiological and emotional benefits to laboratory rodents. Red tinted shelters are a common enrichment found in laboratories that provide rodents with a hiding space shielded from bright light. Red tinting alters the...

Filby, E. 2019. Give us a break! Animal Technology and Welfare 18(1), 45-48.

Literature is replete with studies on stressors to laboratory rodents; knowing the impact research and husbandry interventions, such as routine cage changing, have on rodents’ stress levels, physiology and behaviour, we hypothesised that animals recovering...

Stevens, C., Hawkins, P., Lovell-Badge, R. et al. 2019. Report of the 2018 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent and Rabbit Welfare Group meeting. Animal Technology and Welfare 18(2), 81-91.

The RSPCA/UFAW Rodent (and now Rabbit) Working Group has held a one-day meeting every autumn for the last 25 years, so that its members can discuss current welfare research, exchange views on welfare issues and...

White, M. 2019. Pro’s and pro’s of selective cleaning. Animal Technology and Welfare 18(2), 121-126.

The Kathleen Lonsdale Building (KLB), is a high specification, high health status animal facility that is a full IVC facility with an integral quarantine section. It houses transgenic (TG) mice, inbred, outbred and immuno-suppressed mice...

King, J. 2019. Team awesome: Why we can be proud. Animal Technology and Welfare 18(2), 127-131.

The presentation I gave at IAT Congress 2019 was based on the changes and refinements the University of Dundee, Medical School Resource Unit (MSRU) has made over the past 18 months. These changes, described in...

Yao, L., Li, Y., Qian, Z. et al. 2019. Loss of control over mild aversive events produces significant helplessness in mice. Behavioural Brain Research 376, 112173.

This article is about the importance of giving mice control over what happens to them. Most of the pathophysiology of depression are still unknown because of its numerous disease states of distinct etiology and pathogenesis...