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. 
Cabanac, M., Gosselin, F. 1993. Emotional fever in the lizard Callopistes maculatus. Animal Behaviour 46, 200-202.

Lizards produce an emotional fever when handled, using their behavior to move to a source of heat and raise their core temperature.

Canadian Council on Animal Care 1993. Guide to the Care and Use of Experimental Animals, Volume 1, 2nd Edition. Canadian Council on Animal Care, Ottawa, Canada.

A thorough guide to the species-appropriate housing and handling of nonhuman primates. Differences in light, temperature, and airflow between locations on a cage rack can affect experimental results and should be minimized by either rotating...

Bumpus, S. 1993. The effect of caring touch on the psychological well-being of selected residents of a long-term care facility. South Carolina Nurse 8(1), 26-27.

This study examined the effect of caring touch on the psychological well-being of selected residents of a long-term care facility in suburban South Carolina. Using a quasi-experimental design of pre-test and post-test, with experimental and...

Buchanan-Smith, H. M., Anderson, D. A., Ryan, C. W. 1993. Response of cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) to faecal scents of predators and non-predators. Animal Welfare 2, 17-32.

Prey species may suffer continual levels of heightened anxiety with possible detrimental effects when faeces of a predator is situated at close range.

Broom, D. , Johnson, K. 1993. Stress and Animal Welfare. Chapman and Hall, London, UK.
Britt, A. 1993. Cage top feeding for primates. The Shape of Enrichment 2(3), 11.

Distributing the standard food 'on the cage roof' is a simple method of eliciting species-typical feeding behavior in captive primates.

Brockway, B. P., Hassler, C. R., Hicks, N. 1993. Minimizing stress during physiological monitoring. In: Refinement and Reduction in Animal Testing. Niemi, S. M. , Willson, J. E. (eds), 56-69. Scientists Center for Animal Welfare, Bethesda, MD.

Restraint itself affects the physiological functioning of the animal, measurement error and variability are introduced into the data. [p 57] ... Elimination of sources of variability (stress for example) may allow the use of fewer...

Brent, L., Stone, A. M. 1993. Long-term use of enrichment for paired and singly caged chimpanzees. American Journal of Primatology 31, 301 (Abstract).

Chimpanzees used televisions, balls, and mirrors for 0.27-1.53% of the observation time after several years of exposure to the enrichment items. Television and ball use were significantly higher than mirror use.

Box, H. O., Rohrhuber, B. 1993. Differences in behaviour among adult male, female pairs of cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) in different conditions of housing. Animal Technology 44, 19-30.

Animals living in upper-row cages were more active and engaged in more close contact amicable behavior than animals living in lower-row cages. Those located in the half of the room nearer the window were more...

Bloomsmith, M. A., Lambeth, S. P., Laule, G. E. et al. 1993. Training as environmental enrichment for chimpanzees. American Journal of Primatology 30, 299 (Abstract).

Results indicated that training can be enriching for [group-housed] chimpanzees by increasing social play and reducing inactivity.

Bloomsmith, M. A. 1993. Recent findings in chimpanzee well-being research . American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) Regional Conference Proceedings, 382-386.

Some environmental enrichment options for chimpanzees are summarized.

Bercovitch, F., Kessler, M. J. 1993. Primate facilities and environmental enrichment: An ecological and evolutionary perspective. Humane Innovations and Alternatives in Animal Experimentation 7, 435-439.

The environmental enrichment program of the Caribbean Primate Research Center is guided by an evolutionary and ecological perspective. The evolutionary perspective suggests that primates should be housed in enclosures that provide a social and physical...

Bayne, K., Dexter, S. L., Strange, G. M. 1993. The effects of food treat provisioning and human interaction on the behavioral well-being of rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). Contemporary Topics in Laboratory Animal Science 32(2), 6-9.

The effects of human interaction and food supplementation appear to be protracted, resulting in a reduction of pathology [behavioral disorders] even after the enrichment is removed [p.8]. ... The primary disadvantages to using food enrichment...

Bayne, K., Dexter, S. L., Hurst, J. K. et al. 1993. Kong toys for laboratory primates: Are they really an enrichment or just fomites? Laboratory Animal Science 43, 78-85.

The use of simple toys for environmental enrichment of laboratory primates is an economical means of increasing the complexity of the cage environment to a limited degree. The limitations presented by this method of enrichment...

Bartecki, U. 1993. Increasing the activity of primates in the laboratory. Der Tierschutzbeauftragte 3, 10-16.

A very useful discussion of environmental enrichment strategies.

Britton, M., Roden, J. A., MacPherson, O. et al. 1993. A comparison of a straw-based and slatted floor housing system for weaned pigs. Animal Production 56, 477 (Abstract).

The incidence of bursitis was significantly higher in animals housed in conventional flat decks than in straw bedded kennels.

Brooks, D. L., Huls, W., Leamon, C. et al. 1993. Cage enrichment for female New Zealand White rabbits. Lab Animal 22(5), 30-38.

The paired rabbits preferred to be together (90 percent of the time). .. Even though an individual J feeder and a lixit waterer were in each cage, the paired rabbits usually preferred to share their...

Bowers, C. L., Friend, T. H., Grissom, K. K. et al. 1993. Confinement of lambs (Ovis aries) in metabolism stalls increased adrenal function, thyroxine and motivation for movement. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 36, 149-158.

The results of the present study indicate that lambs maintained in metabolism stalls can be physiologically and behaviourally altered [even though they appear to have all of their physical needs met, they have no opportunity...

Blom, H. J. M., Witkam, A. C. P., Schlingmann, F. et al. 1993. Demonstration of Preference for Clean Versus Soiled Cages As Expressed by Laboratory Mice. Utrecht University , Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Mice in cages with flooring consisting partly of wire mesh and partly of sawdust bedding chose the bedded area for sleeping. They kept their sleeping area clean and deposited almost all their excreta on the...

Blom, H. J. M., van Tintelen, G., Baumans, V. et al. 1993. Comparison of Sawdust Bedding and Wire Mesh As Cage Flooring in Preference Tests With Laboratory Rats. Ph.D. Thesis, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Rats preferred sawdust bedding and avoided cages with wire mesh or with a bare solid floor.

Arluke, A. B. 1993. Trapped in a guilt cage. Animal Welfare Information Center (AWIC) Newsletter 4(2), 1-2 & 7-8.

Scientists, veterinarians, and administrators tended to deny that laboratory workers could be troubled by their use of animals. Uneasiness was not seen as an issue, and was not allowed to intrude on the normal course...

Aureli, F., Veenema, H., van Eck, C. 1993. Coping with short-term crowding in long-tailed macaques. American Journal of Primatology. 31, 295 (Abstract).

Data from 42 individuals belonging to different age-sex classes showed that only mild forms of aggression increased under the crowded condition. Crowding also resulted in a decrease in grooming, playing and exploration of the environment...

Beattie, V. E., Sneddon, I. A., Walker, N. 1993. Behaviour and productivity of the domestic pig in barren and enriched environments. In: Livestock Environment: Fourth International Symposium. 42-50. American Society of Agricultural Engineers, St Joseph, Michigan.

It was shown that pigs housed indoors and given a substrate [peat] to root, increase the amount of time spent exploring and decrease the time spent inactive and in behaviour directed towards their pen-mates such...

Anzenberger, G., Gossweiler, H. 1993. How to obtain individual urine samples from undisturbed marmoset families. American Journal of Primatology 31, 223-230.

An apparatus and a method are described, which allow simultaneous urine collection from all individual members of undisturbed marmoset families. By the end of the third week of training, it was not unusual to collect...

Andrews, M. W., Rosenblum, L. A. 1993. Individually housed bonnet macaque males perform joy-stick task to view live video of a social group. American Journal of Primatology 30, 294 (Abstract).

Individually housed bonnet macaques perform joy-stick task to view video of a group-housed conspecifics.