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. 
Golledge, H., Richardson, C. (Eds.) 2024. The UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management of Laboratory and Other Research Animals (9th ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. 1040 p.

The latest edition of the seminal reference on the care and management of laboratory and research animals. The newly revised ninth edition of The UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management of Laboratory and Other...

Claydon, M., Brereton, J., Rose, P. 2024. Never be mute about bird welfare: Swanning around with environmental enrichment. Zoo Biology 43(1), 83–91.

Environmental enrichment (EE) is commonly provided to animals managed under human care, being beneficial to behavioral diversity and improving animal welfare. Use of EE appears to be particularly beneficial to individual wild animals spending a...

Baskir, E., Parsons, A., Elden, M. et al. 2023. Quantifying acute behavioral reactions of Bali mynas (Leucopsar rothschildi) to environmental and progressively challenging enrichment. Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens 4(1), 176–190.

Animals use specific behaviors and skills to overcome challenges and access resources. Environmental enrichment is provided to animals in human care to both promote species-appropriate behaviors and reduce undesired behaviors. Feather pecking in birds is...

Brereton, J., Rose, P. 2022. An evaluation of the role of 'biological evidence' in zoo and aquarium enrichment practices. Animal Welfare 31(1), 13-26.

Evidence-based approaches are key to advancing all areas of zoo and aquarium practice. Output from empirical study must be disseminated to those within the industry so that results can support changes to husbandry and management...

Alaniz, A. J., Astudillo-Hinojosa, K., Soto, A. F. et al. 2022. Rapid behavioral recovery based on environmental enrichment of a white-throated toucan (Ramphastos tucanus: Ramphastidae) affected by collision trauma. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 57, 1-5.

Captive animals that have experienced traumatic events require a high range of care prior to reintroducing them into their natural habitat; and this care should ensure their welfare in captivity. This report shows the ethological...

Alvarez Ramírez, L., Mejía Huerta, N. G., Sánchez Cervantes, A. 2021. Artificial shade effects on behavior and body weight of pregnant grazing red deer (Cervus elaphus). Journal of Veterinary Behavior 44, 32-39.

The study aimed to determine whether artificial shade influences grazing behavior and body weight of pregnant female red deer. Two groups of pregnant does were grazed in enclosures with shade (WS, n = 23), or non-shaded enclosures...

Brereton, J. E., Myhill, M. N. G., Shora, J. A. 2021. Investigating the effect of enrichment on the behavior of zoo-housed southern ground hornbills. Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens 2(4), 600–609.

Enrichment is essential for the welfare of many zoo-housed animals, yet the value of enrichment is not well understood for all taxa. As an intelligent, long-lived species, the southern ground hornbill (Bucorvus leadbeateri) is a...

Glaspell, S. 2020. Flight to freedom: Behavior modification of an undomesticated pigeon using human interaction. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 8(2) (March/April), 58-61.

The white-crowned pigeon, Patagioenas leucocephala, is a species of bird not often used in research. This may be related to its anxiety during normal human interactions, such as with cage changing. Our institution acquired a...

Janiszewski, P., Cilulko-Dolega, J. 2019. Behavior and spatial use of enclosures by does and fawns of farmed fallow deer in postnatal period. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 31, 5-9.

The aim of this study was to determine the hiding preferences of farmed European fallow deer does and fawns in natural sites and artificial shelters during the postnatal period. A total of 270 hours of...

Cox, R. J., Nol, P., Ellis, C. K. et al. 2019. Research with agricultural animals and wildlife. ILAR Journal 60(1), 66-73.

In fiscal year 2016, agricultural animals such as swine, sheep, goats, and cattle represented 10% of the 820 812 animals used in USDA-regulated research. In addition to traditional agricultural animals, research studies using captive wildlife...

Schmitt, V. 2019. Implementing portable touchscreen-setups to enhance cognitive research and enrich zoo-housed animals. Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research 7(2), 50-58.

To understand the evolutionary development of cognition, comparing the cognitive capacities of different animal species is essential. However, getting access to various species with sufficient sample sizes can be very challenging. Zoos, housing large ranges...

Volkmann, J. L., Evans, C. A., Buckmaster, C. 2018. Pigeons: Flying to new heights. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 6(1) (March), 33-34.

When singly or pair housed in cages, pigeons have a relatively small area in which to walk and stretch or flap their wings. More space is required to allow pigeons to be housed in numbers...

Alligood, C. A., Dorey, N. R., Mehrkam, L. R. et al. 2017. Applying behavior-analytic methodology to the science and practice of environmental enrichment in zoos and aquariums. Zoo Biology 36(3), 175–185.

Environmental enrichment in zoos and aquariums is often evaluated at two overlapping levels: published research and day‐to‐day institutional record keeping. Several authors have discussed ongoing challenges with small sample sizes in between‐groups zoological research and...

Nelson Slater, M., Hauber, M. E. 2017. Olfactory enrichment and scent cue associative learning in captive birds of prey. Zoo Biology 36(2), 120–126.

As the use of enrichment in zoos has become a standardized husbandry practice, the continued improvement of enrichment programs should be concomitant with empirical validation of those practices. The role of scent as enrichment remains...

Perret, A., Henry, L., Coulon, M. et al. 2015. Social visual contact, a primary “drive” for social animals? Animal Cognition 18(3), 657–666.

Social animals are always searching for conspecifics, thereby expressing a genuine “social need”. This need is illustrated by the fact that social isolation can induce isolation syndromes that can be attenuated by devices such as...

Melfi, V. 2013. Is training zoo animals enriching? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 147, 299-305.

Husbandry training of zoo animals (training) has been associated with many benefits, and indisputably is a valuable tool; training facilitates movement of animals within their environment, and participation in husbandry and medical procedures. Training has...

Hoy, J. M., Murray, P. J., Tribe, A. 2010. Thirty years later: Enrichment practices for captive mammals. Zoo Biology 29(3), 303-316.

Environmental enrichment of captive mammals has been steadily evolving over the past thirty years. For this process to continue, it is first necessary to define current enrichment practices and then identify the factors that limit...

Brown, C. 2010. Organic wheatgrass as environmental enrichment. Lab Animal 39(3), 74-75.

Environmental enrichment must be provided for the various animal species that are housed in laboratory animal facilities. Wheatgrass can be used as a natural form of enrichment that requires minimal preparation and effort. Wheatgrass is...

Conte, A. 2005. Pigeons used in research: From barren single-housing to an enriched environment. AWI Quarterly 54(3) (Summer), 14-15.

Single-caged pigeons were successfully transferred to compatible group-housing.

Pecenko, N. 1997. Visitors as an environmental enrichment. In: Proceedings on the International Conference on Environmental Enrichment. Holst, B. (ed), 325-33. Copenhagen Zoo, Frederiksberg, DK.

Because of the influence in behaviour, we can say that visitors are a kind of environmental enrichment. .... Sometimes visitors have a negative effect (increase of aggressive behaviour, begging for food) and in some cases...