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...

Pedrazzani, A. S., Cozer, N., Quintiliano, M. H. et al. 2023. Non-invasive methods for assessing the welfare of farmed white-leg shrimp (Penaeus vannamei). Animals 13(5), 807.

Gradually, concern for the welfare of aquatic invertebrates produced on a commercial/industrial scale is crossing the boundaries of science and becoming a demand of other societal actors. The objective of this paper is to propose...

Skovlund, C. R., Kirchner, M. K., Contiero, B. et al. 2023. Qualitative Behaviour Assessment for zoo-housed polar bears (Ursus maritimus): Intra- and inter-day consistency and association to other indicators of welfare. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 263, 105942.

Contemporary zoos house polar bears (Ursus maritimus) to serve the conservation efforts of these institutions. However, evidence of behavioural problems in captivity has highlighted the need for methods to assess polar bear welfare, why valid...

Babitz, M., Gibson, A., Pratte, J. 2023. Improving animal wellbeing using behavior-based methodologies: A discussion on enrichment and bears under human care. Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens 4(1), 256–276.

This communication discusses the Bear Care Group’s “behavior-based” enrichment philosophy, focusing on the importance of enrichment programs built on the knowledge of species’ natural histories, living strategies, and observed daily and seasonal routines. Methods for...

Campbell-Ward, M. 2023. Quality-of-life assessments in zoo animals: Not just for the aged and charismatic. Animals 13(21), 3394

Zoos should aim to provide all of their animals with a good quality of life (QoL) throughout all life stages. In parallel with the evolution of QoL assessment questionnaires and tools in human and domestic...

Allworthy, S. 2023. Inspired by ABWAK – Making a red panda mirror box. RATEL (Journal of the Association of British and Irish Wild Animal Keepers) 50(1), 15.

I've been lucky enough to work with red pandas for around eight years now and during that time worked on a training plan for health checks, routine weighing and general husbandry. Through this training program...

Zuerl, M., Stoll, P., Brehm, I. et al. 2022. Automated video-based analysis framework for behavior monitoring of individual animals in zoos using deep learning—A study on polar bears. Animals 12(6), 692.

The monitoring of animals under human care is a crucial tool for biologists and zookeepers to keep track of the animals’ physical and psychological health. Additionally, it enables the analysis of observed behavioral changes and...

Narshi, T. M., Free, D., Justice, W. S. M. et al. 2022. Welfare assessment of invertebrates: Adapting the animal welfare assessment grid (AWAG) for zoo decapods and cephalopods. Animals 12(13), 1675.

Consumer demand for invertebrates is on the rise as their numbers in the wild dwindle. However, with the growing conservation efforts of modern zoos and aquariums, and evidence from over 300 studies showing that invertebrates...

Skovlund, C. R., Kirchner, M. K., Moos, L. W. et al. 2021. A critical review of animal-based welfare indicators for polar bears (Ursus maritimus) in zoos: Identification and evidence of validity. Animal Welfare 30(1), 1-18.

Captive polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are well-documented as being prone to behavioural disorders and, as a result, their welfare is the cause of increasing concern. There is therefore a need for an evidence-based approach to...

Elwood, R. W. 2021. Potential pain in fish and decapods: Similar experimental approaches and similar results. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 8, 631151.

I review studies that examined the possibility of pain experience in fish and note how they provided guidance on general methods that could be applied to other animals such as decapod crustaceans. The fish studies...

Vonk, J., McGuire, M. C., Johnson-Ulrich, Z. 2021. Bearing fruit: Piloting a novel judgment bias task in an American black bear. Zoo Biology 40(2), 89-97.

Judgment bias tasks can reveal changes in affect in animals as a function of environmental manipulations such as provision of enrichment. We assessed affect in an American black bear across seasonal changes in availability of...

Maher, C. J., Gibson, A., Dixon, L. M. et al. 2021. Developing a reliable welfare assessment tool for captive hibernatory bear species. Animals 11(11), 3090.

Animal welfare assessments are essential for the identification of welfare hazards and benchmarking of welfare improvements, though welfare assessments for zoo species are lacking. Bears are commonly housed in zoos but currently no composite welfare...

Fuller, G., Hamilton, J., Allard, S. 2021. DNA damage as a potential non-invasive indicator of welfare: A preliminary study in zoo-housed grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis). Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens 2(3), 316–334.

Measures of oxidative stress have potential for integrating positive and negative life experiences into comprehensive cellular indicators of animal welfare. We explored this possibility when three adult grizzly bear brothers at the Detroit Zoo were...

Harvey, A., Beausoleil, N., Ramp, D. et al. 2020. A ten-stage protocol for assessing the welfare of individual non-captive wild animals: Free-roaming horses (Equus ferus caballus) as an example. Animals 10(1), 148.

Knowledge of the welfare status of wild animals is vital for informing debates about the ways in which we interact with wild animals and their habitats. Currently, there is no published information about how to...

Miller, L. J., Vicino, G. A., Sheftel, J. et al. 2020. Behavioral diversity as a potential indicator of positive animal welfare. Animals 10(7), 1211.

Modern day zoos and aquariums continuously assess the welfare of their animals and use evidence to make informed management decisions. Historically, many of the indicators of animal welfare used to assess the collection are negative...

Fernandez, E. J., Yoakum, E., Andrews, N. 2020. Seasonal and daily activity of two zoo-housed grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis). Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens 1(1), 1–12.

Captive grizzly bears, like their wild counterparts, engage in considerable variability in their seasonal and daily activity. We documented the year-long activity of two grizzly bears located at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington...

Egelkamp, C. L., Ross, S. R. 2019. A review of zoo-based cognitive research using touchscreen interfaces. Zoo Biology 38(2), 220-235.

In the past few decades, there has been an increase in the number of zoo-based touchscreen studies of animal cognition around the world. Such studies have contributed to the field of comparative cognition despite the...

Elwood, R. W. 2019. Assessing the potential for pain in crustaceans and other invertebrates. In: The Welfare of Invertebrate Animals. Carere, C., Mather, J. (eds), 147-177. Springer, Cham.

All animals face hazards that cause tissue damage, and most have nociceptive reflex responses that protect them from such damage. However, some taxa have also evolved the capacity for pain experience, presumably to enhance long-term...

Clegg, I. 2018. Cognitive bias in zoo animals: An optimistic outlook for welfare assessment. Animals 8(7), 104.

Cognitive bias testing measures how emotional states can affect cognitive processes, often described using the “glass half-full/half-empty” paradigm. Classical or operant conditioning is used to measure responses to ambiguous cues, and it has been reported...

Wolfensohn, S., Shotton, J., Bowley, H. et al. 2018. Assessment of welfare in zoo animals: Towards optimum quality of life. Animals 8(7), 110.

Zoos are required to maintain a high standard of animal welfare, and this can be assessed using a combination of resource-based and animal-based indices usually divided into behavioural indicators, physiological indicators and clinical/pathological signs. Modern...

Bueno da Silva, A. P., Oliveira, I. P. M. R., Bastos-Pereira, R. et al. 2018. Are laboratory studies on behavior of troglobitic species always trustful? A case study with an isopod from Brazil. Behavioural Processes 153, 55-65.

There is a huge lack of information regarding the natural history of subterranean species, particularly focusing on aspects of the behavioral ecology of Brazilian cave fauna. In the present work, we aimed to describe and...

Brando, S., Broom, D. M., Acasuso-Rivero, C. et al. 2018. Optimal marine mammal welfare under human care: Current efforts and future directions. Behavioural Processes 156, 16-36.

Marine mammals include cetaceans, pinnipeds, sirenians, sea otters and polar bears, many of which are charismatic and popular species commonly kept under human care in zoos and aquaria. However, in comparison with their fully terrestrial...

Krebs, B. L., Torres, E., Chesney, C. et al. 2017. Applying behavioral conditioning to identify anticipatory behaviors. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 20(2), 155-175.

The ability to predict regular events can be adaptive for nonhuman animals living in an otherwise unpredictable environment. Animals may exhibit behavioral changes preceding a predictable event; such changes reflect anticipatory behavior. Anticipatory behavior is...

Elwood, R. W., Dalton, N., Riddell, G. 2017. Aversive responses by shore crabs to acetic acid but not to capsaicin. Behavioural Processes 140, 1-5.

Nociception is the ability to encode and perceive harmful stimuli and allows for a rapid reflexive withdrawal. In some species, nociception might be accompanied by a pain experience, which is a negative feeling that allows...

Rose, P. E., Nash, S. M., Riley, L. M. 2017. To pace or not to pace? A review of what abnormal repetitive behavior tells us about zoo animal management. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 20, 11-21.

Performance of abnormal repetitive behavior (ARB) is noted in many captive wild species. ARB can be categorized into 2 basic forms: those whose aim appears to be to compulsively reach an inappropriate goal and those...