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. 
Key, D. 2004. Environmental enrichment options for laboratory rats and mice. Lab Animal 33(2), 39-44.

Environmental enrichment is the alteration of animals' microenvironment to provide them with the opportunity to perfrom species-specific behaviors that we perceive as positive, while reducing abnormal behaviors. [p. 39] Several interesting products are now available...

Guilarte, T. R., Toscano, C. D., McGlothan, J. L. et al. 2004. Environmental enrichment: Beneficial effects in a rodent model of lead neurotoxicity. Proceedings of the 4th World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences - Alternatives to Laboratory Animals [ATLA] 32(Supplement), 236 (Abstract).

Using a rodent model of lead-induced neurotoxicity, we show that environmental enrichment reverses cognitive and molecular deficits induced by this developmental neurotoxicant... At weaning, pups were removed from the lead exposure and housed in isolation...

Reinhardt, V. 2003. Working with rather than against macaques during blood collection. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 6(3), 189-197.

12 adult pair-housed female, 5 adult single-housed male and 10 adult pair-housed male rhesus macaques, and 6 adult pair-housed female stump-tailed macaques were trained to cooperate during in-homecage blood collection. The total number of training...

Reinhardt, V. 2003. Legal loophole for subminimal floor area for caged macaques. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 6(1), 53-56.

The USDA regulations pertaining to the minimum space requirements of nonhuman primates and the fitting of elevated resting surfaces are contradictory. They implicitly condone the prevailing perch design that allows maximal usage of animal room...

National Research Council. 2003. Guidelines for the Care and Use of Mammals in Neuroscience and Behavioral Research. National Academic Press: Washington, DC, 223 pp.

Expanding on the National Research Council’s Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, this book deals specifically with mammals in neuroscience and behavioral research laboratories. It offers flexible guidelines for the care of...

National Health and Medical Research Council [NHMRC] Animal Welfare Committee. 2003. Policy on the Care and Use of Non-Human Primates for Scientific Purposes. National Health and Medical Research Council: Canberra, Australia.
Sharp, J. L., Zammit, T., Azar, T. A. et al. 2003. Stress-like responses to common procedures in individually and group-housed female rats. Contemporary Topics in Laboratory Animal Science 42(1), 9-18.

Mean resting HR values in the mornings prior to human contact were significantly (P

Sharp, J. L., Zammit, T., Azar, T. A. et al. 2003. Are "by-stander" female Sprague-Dawley rats affected by experimental procedures? Contemporary Topics in Laboratory Animal Science 42(1), 19-28.

The objective of this study was to test the hypotheses that female rats are stressed by being in the same room as animals subjected to common husbandry and experimental procedures and that the level of...

Patterson-Kane, E. G. 2003. Shelter enrichment for rats. Contemporary Topics in Laboratory Animal Science 42(2), 46-48.

Nest boxes are a simple and effective form of environmentalenrichment. Rats accept a wide range of nest-box types but have the strongest...preference for enclosed, opaque, thermoplastic boxes. ...Tubes have proven a relatively ineffective enrichment for...

Johnson, S. R., Patterson-Kane, E. G. 2003. Foraging as environmental enrichment for laboratory rats: A theoretical review. Animal Technology and Welfare 2, 13-22.

Foraging opportunities are a form of environmental enrichment with great potential to improve the welfare of animals in laboratories. Though commonly used with zoo animals, little evidence exists of their use in laboratories. Technicians or...

Applebee, K. A. 2002. Rodent environmental enrichment - animal welfare or human feel-good factor. Animal Technology and Welfare 1(2), 65-69.

This article discusses environmental enrichment for rodents, mainly mice and rats housed in conventional caging, in U.K. research facilities. Environmental enrichment should allow and encourage animals to perform normal behavioural patterns. Cage furniture cannot be...

Reinhardt, V. 2002. The myth of the aggressive monkey. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 5(4), 321-330.

Captive rhesus macaques are not intrinsically aggressive, but poor husbandry and handling practices can trigger their aggression towards conspecifics and towards the human handler. The statement 'rhesus macaques are so aggressive animals' is probably based...

Reinhardt, V. 2002. Artificial weaning of Old World monkeys: Benefits and costs. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 5(2), 151-156.

The perceived benefits of permanent, pre-weaning mother-infant separation are not supported by scientific findings. ... As long as there is an excessive number of monkeys and insufficient cage space, there is no ethically legitimate reason...

Fernández-Teruel, A., Giménez-Llort, L., Escorihuela, R. M. et al. 2002. Early-life handling stimulation and environmental enrichment: Are some of their effects mediated by similar neural mechanisms? Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior 73(1), 233-245.

Neonatal (early) handling (EH) and environmental enrichment (EE) of laboratory rodents have been the two most commonly used methods of providing supplementary environmental stimulation in order to study behavioral and neurobiological plasticity. A large body...

Reinhardt, V., Rossell, M. 2001. Self-biting in caged macaques: Cause, effect and treatment. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 4, 285-294.

In the United States, there are an estimated 15,000 individually caged macaques. If 10% of these animals exhibit visible injuries resulting from self-biting and another 10% show unnoticed self-biting behavior, then about 3,000 animals (20%)...

Reinhardt, V. 2001. The impossible housing and handling conditions of monkeys in research laboratories. IPPL [International Protection League] News 28(2), 5-7.

The prevailing housing and handling conditions of monkeys in research institutions is described. The present situation in primate research laboratories strongly suggests that professional judgment is no guarantee that the inhumane housing and handling conditions...

Queyras, A., Bernarducci, R., Vitale, A. 2001. Environmental enrichment during separtion in captive common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus): Behavioural and physiological aspects. Folia Primatologica 72(3), 151-152. (Primate Meeting Abstract)

In the social condition, the animals tended to show an increased heart rate, presumably resulting from competion over access to the foraging device.

Schapiro, S. J. 2000. A few new developments in primate housing and husbandry. Scandinavian Journal of Laboratory Animal Science 27(2), 103-110.

A major focus of this paper is an examination of the complementary role that behavioral management strategies play in the establishment and enhancement of well-defined nonhuman primate research resources. .... Additionally, I will discuss the...

Reinhardt, V., Reinhardt, A. 2000. Blood collection procedure of laboratory primates: A neglected variable in biomedical research. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 3(4), 321-333.

A survey of 75 biomedical articles dealing with stress-dependent blood parameters in caged primates revealed that the conditions under which blood collection occurred were in most cases [72%] described either not at all or so...

Reinhardt, V., Reinhardt, A. 2000. The lower row monkey cage: An overlooked variable in biomedical research. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 3(2), 141-149.

A survey of 96 primatological articles revealed that cage location of research monkeys is usually not mentioned (98%), in spite of the fact that the environment of upper- and lower-row housed animals markedly differs in...

Eskola, S., Lauhikari, M., Voipio, H.-M. et al. 1999. Environmental enrichment may alter the number of rats needed to achieve statistical significance. Scandinavian Journal of Laboratory Animal Science 26(3), 134-144.

The aim of this study was to evaluate whether two enrichment items, an aspen tube and block, have any impact on commonly analysed clinical chemistry and physiological parameters of Wistar rats and - more importantly...

Eskola, S., Lauhikari, M., Voipio, H.-M. et al. 1999. The use of aspen blocks and tubes to enrich the cage environment of laboratory rats. Scandinavian Journal of Laboratory Animal Science 26(1), 1-10.

Female and male outbred Wistar rats (n=48) were allocated into three groups at weaning; control, tube and block groups (n = 8 males and 8 females in each) Animals were conventionally housed for five weeks...

Philbin, N. 1998. Towards an understanding of stereotypic behaviour in laboratory macaques. Animal Technology 49, 19-33.

Comprehensive discussion and review of the possible causes of stereotypic behaviour in laboratory macaques. A great deal of debate and controversy has surrounded what does does and does not constitute psychological well-being in primates [p...

Guhad, F., Augustsson, H., Hau, J. 1998. The Törneby Primate Facility optimisation of housing conditions for rhesus macaques in Sweden. Scandinavian Journal of Laboratory Animal Science 25(4), 173-176.

Group-housing arrangements for rhesus macaques and husbandry implications are described.

Eskola, S., Kaliste-Korhonen, E. 1998. Effects of cage type and gnawing blocks on weight gain, organ weights and open-field behaviour inWistar rats. Scandinavian Journal of Laboratory Animal Science 25(4), 180-193.

Two separate experiments were conducted to study the environmental enrichment value of aspen gnawing blocks in solid bottom cages with bedding '(SBC) and in grid floor cages without bedding (GFC), and the effects of housing...