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. 
Scopa, C., Greco, A., Contalbrigo, L. et al. 2020. Inside the interaction: Contact with familiar humans modulates heart rate variability in horses. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 7, 582759.

A human–animal relationship can be developed through subsequent interactions, affected by the positive or negative emotional valence of the proceeding one. Horses implement a process of categorization to classify humans with whom they interact as...

Taylor, P. 2020. Remote controlled nociceptive threshold testing systems in large animals. Animals 10(9), 1556.

Nociceptive threshold (NT) testing is widely used for the study of pain and its alleviation. The end point is a normal behavioural response, which may be affected by restraint or unfamiliar surroundings, leading to erroneous...

van Loon, J., Verhaar, N., van den Berg, E. et al. 2020. Objective assessment of acute pain in foals using a facial expression-based pain scale. Animals 10(9), 1610.

Pain assessment is very important for monitoring welfare and quality of life in horses. To date, no studies have described pain scales for objective assessment of pain in foals. Studies in other species have shown...

Coda, K. A., Fortman, J. D., García, K. D. 2020. Behavioral effects of cage size and environmental enrichment in New Zealand white rabbits. JAALAS 59(4), 356-364.

One of the goals of environmental enrichment is to encourage species-typical behaviors, while discouraging abnormal behaviors or stereotypies. Assessing the effectiveness of various enrichment modalities can be challenging, particularly for prey species such as rabbits...

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...

Andrews, D. D., Fajt, V. R., Baker, K. C. et al. 2020. A comparison of buprenorphine, sustained release buprenorphine, and high concentration buprenorphine in male New Zealand white rabbits. JAALAS 59(5), 546-556.

Pain management in rabbits can be difficult because they are adept at hiding pain and can be stressed by handling and restraint for injection. The use of opioid analgesics with prolonged durations of activity could...

Newman, R., McKeown, S., Power, T. et al. 2020. Introducing three new males into a captive lion-tailed macaque (Macaca silenus) group. Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research 8(3), 212-217.

The introduction of an unfamiliar animal to a new individual or group can be highly stressful for any animal. Various studies have tried to determine the best method for introducing unfamiliar animals to each other...

Mogil, J. S., Pang, D. S. J., Silva Dutra, G. G. et al. 2020. The development and use of facial grimace scales for pain measurement in animals. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 116, 480-496.

The measurement of pain in animals is surprisingly complex, and remains a critical issue in veterinary care and biomedical research. Based on the known utility of pain measurement via facial expression in verbal and especially...

Rojas, D., Broom, D. M., Orihuela, A. et al. 2020. Effects of human-animal relationship on animal productivity and welfare. Journal of Animal Behaviour and Biometeorology 8(3), 196-205.

This is a literature review of the effects of humans' relationships with farm animals on animal productivity and welfare, including the following topics: definition of the concept and description of different tests that have been...

Nawroth, C., Gygax, L. 2020. The legislative, ethical, and conceptual importance of replicability in farm animal welfare science. agriRxiv 2020, 20203211980.

In this commentary, we discuss three replicability issues that are specifically relevant to research regarding farm animal welfare: (1) Legislative action, and its potential economic consequences, should derive from robust and replicable research to benefit...

Butler, J. L., Kennerley, S. W. 2019. Mymou: A low-cost, wireless touchscreen system for automated training of nonhuman primates. Behaviour Research Methods 51, 2559–2572.

Training nonhuman primates (NHPs) to perform cognitive tasks is essential for many neuroscientific investigations, yet laboratory training is a time-consuming process with inherent limitations. Habituating NHPs to the laboratory staff and experimental equipment can take...

Luz, M. P. F., Maia, C. M., Arruda, L. A. S. et al. 2019. Preference for heights of feeding troughs in mares: A pilot study. Animal Welfare 28(2), 205-214.

Preferences for the height of feeding troughs of seven mares were evaluated and, as awareness of surroundings when feeding is adaptive for horses, the relationship between preference responses and attention behaviours was also assessed. First...

Popescu, S., Lazar, E. A., Borda, C. et al. 2019. Welfare quality of breeding horses under different housing conditions. Animals 9(3), 81.

This paper investigates the effect of different housing conditions on the welfare quality of breeding horses. Using a welfare protocol that included health and behavioral parameters, 330 stallions (kept in tie-stall housing) and 365 broodmares...

Yngvesson, J., Rey Torres, J. C., Lindholm, J. et al. 2019. Health and body conditions of riding school horses housed in groups or kept in conventional tie-stall/box housing. Animals 9(3), 73.

We compared welfare measures of horses among Swedish riding schools (RS) during winter where horses were kept either in group housing (n = 8) or in tie-stalls/boxes (n = 8), Health data for six previous...

Jacobson, S. L., Kwiatt, A. C., Ross, S. R. et al. 2019. The effects of cognitive testing on the welfare of zoo-housed Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 212, 90-97.

Cognitive testing programs are being implemented more frequently in zoo settings due to the benefits these programs can provide for the animals, researchers and zoo visitors. However, the impact that cognitive studies have on the...

Mejdell, C. M., Jørgensen, G. H. M., Buvik, T. et al. 2019. The effect of weather conditions on the preference in horses for wearing blankets. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 212, 52-57.

The use of blankets in horses is widespread in Northern Europe. However, horses are very adaptable to low temperatures and the practice is questioned because blankets may hamper heat dissipation at high temperatures and also...

Beisner, B. A., Wooddell, L. J., Hannibal, D. L. et al. 2019. High rates of aggression do not predict rates of trauma in captive groups of macaques. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 212, 82-89.

Socially inflicted traumas are a major concern for the management of captive groups of rhesus macaques. Rhesus macaques are the most commonly used nonhuman primate in biomedical research, and social housing is optimal for promoting...

Howell, C. P., Cheyne, S. M. 2019. Complexities of using wild versus captive activity budget comparisons for assessing captive primate welfare. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 22(1), 78-96.

Activity budget comparisons between groups or individuals in the wild and those in captivity are commonly used to determine the range of wild-type behaviors that nonhuman animals in captivity perform. These comparisons are conducted with...

Sterck, E. H. M., Zijlmans, D. G. M., de Vries, H., et al. 2019. Determining overweight and underweight with a new weight‐for‐height index in captive group‐housed macaques. American Journal of Primatology 81(6), e22996.

Housing primates in naturalistic groups provides social benefits relative to solitary housing. However, food intake may vary across individuals, possibly resulting in overweight and underweight individuals. Information on relative adiposity (the amount of fat tissue...

Hopper, L. M., Fernandez‐Duque, E., Williams, L. E. 2019. Testing the weekend effect hypothesis: Time of day and lunar phase better predict the timing of births in laboratory‐housed primates than day of week. American Journal of Primatology 81(7), e23026.

The weekend effect hypothesis proposes that captive primates are more likely to give birth during times of low disturbance and reduced staff activity. The hypothesis specifically predicts that laboratory‐housed primates will be more likely to...

Berg, M. R., Heagerty, A., Coleman, K. 2019. Oxytocin and pair compatibility in adult male rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). American Journal of Primatology 81(8), e23031.

Pair housing is considered one of the best ways of promoting psychological wellbeing for caged macaques. However, incompatible partnerships can result in stress or aggression. Though previous studies have analyzed the role of variables such...

Murphy, A. M., Ross, C. N., Bliss‐Moreau, E. 2019. Noninvasive cardiac psychophysiology as a tool for translational science with marmosets. American Journal of Primatology 81(9), e23037.

The importance of marmosets for comparative and translational science has grown in recent years because of their relatively rapid development, birth cohorts of twins, family social structure, and genetic tractability. Despite this, they remain understudied...

Bill, J., Rauterberg, S. L., Stracke, J. et al. 2019. Prevalence and severity of tail lesions as a possible welfare indicator for rabbit does. Animal Welfare 28(4), 511-518.

The impact of behavioural disorders on animal welfare in modern animal husbandry has been much debated. While other abnormal behaviours have been explored at length, there are a paucity of studies on tail-biting in rabbits...

Windschnurer, I., Waiblinger, S., Hanslik, S. et al. 2019. Effects of ground floor type on selected health-parameters and weight of rabbits reared in group pens. Animals 9(5), 216.

Cage housing of growing rabbits is associated with welfare concerns. An alternative system that has already been introduced involves pens with non-wire floors. An important aspect of group pens, for which the best solution has...

Raspa, F., Cavallarin, L., McLean, A. et al. 2019. A Review of the appropriate nutrition welfare criteria of dairy donkeys: Nutritional requirements, farm management requirements and animal-based indicators. Animals 9(6), 315.

Data are available in the scientific literature concerning the quality and usefulness of donkey milk for human consumption. However, there is a lack of studies related to the understanding of the welfare of dairy donkeys...