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. 
Van Lawick-Goodall, J. 1975. The behavior of the chimpanzee. In: Hominisation Und Verhalten. Kurth, G. , Eibl-Eibesfeldt, I. (eds), 74-136. Gustav Fischer, Stuttgart, Germany.
Sackett, D., Oswald, M., Erwin, J. 1975. Aggression among captive female pigtail monkeys in all-female and harem groups. Journal of Biological Psychology 17, 17-20.

There was substantially more aggression among females in all-female groups than in groups containing one male.

Rose, R. M., Bernstein, I. S., Gordon, T. P. 1975. Consequences of social conflict on plasma testosterone levels in rhesus monkeys. Psychosomatic Medicine 37, 50-61.

Group-housed animals were habituated to cooperate during capture and subsequent blood collection in a transport box.

Mugford, R. A. , M'Comisky, J. G. 1975. Some recent work on the psychotherapeutic value of caged birds with old people. In: Pet Animals and Society. Anderson, R. S. (ed), 54-65. Baillere-Tindall, London, UK.
Kotera, S., Tanaka, T., Tajima, Y. et al. 1975. Establishment of an island breeding colony of Japanese monkeys as a laboratory animal. Laboratory Animal Handbooks 6, 95-105.
Singer, P. 1975. Animal Liberation - A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals. Avon Books, New York, NY.

The researcher's central dilemma exists in an especially acute form in psychology: either the animal is not like us, in which case there is no reason for performing the experiment; or else the animal is...

Roper, T. J. 1975. Self-sustaining activities and reinforcement in the nest building behaviour of mice. Behaviour 59, 40-57.

Mice will readily work in order to get nesting material. It is concluded that gathering is at least to some extent authonomously controlled, and that it is a weak positive reinforcer.

Roper, T. J. 1975. Nest material and food as reinforcers for fixed-ratio responding in mice. Learning and Motivation 6, 327-343.

Mice will readily work in order to get nesting material.

Reinhardt, V., Reinhardt, A. 1975. Dynamics of social hierarchy in a dairy herd. Zeitschrift f?r Tierpsychologie 38, 315-323.

Shifting in rank position is inherent in the dynamic interdependency between age, body wieght and social rank. Up to the age of about nine years animal gain in dominance, at which time they occupy the...

Neamand, J., Sweeny, W. T., Creamer, A. A. et al. 1975. Cage activity in the laboratory beagle: A preliminary study to evaluate a method of comparing cage size to physical activity. Laboratory Animal Science 25, 180-183.

There appeared to be little difference between the general activity levels of the 2 dogs, regardless of the amount of [unstructured] activity space available.

Mulder, J. B. 1975. Bedding preferences of pregnant laboratory-reared mice. Behavior Research Methods and Instrumentation 7, 21-22.

Pregnant mice invariably preferred aspen shaving bedding over nine other commercially available bedding materials.

Manosevitz, M., Pryor, J. B. 1975. Cage size as a factor in environmental enrichment. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 89, 648-654.

Cage size significantly affected 38-day gross body weight, open-field activity and defecation, running-wheel activity, exploration, and water consumption. .. Rearing in large cages, either wire or Plexiglas, appears to reduce emotionality... The results of this...

Lawlor, M. M., Wells, P. A., Weinberg, J. 1975. Deleterious effect of infantile stimulation in the golden hamster. Experimental Brain Research 23(Supplement), 120 (Abstract).

Unlike in rats, early handling makes hamsters timid and wild when they are adults.

Jones, R. B., Nowell, N. W. 1975. Effects of clean and soiled sawdust substrates and of different urine types upon aggressive behaviour in male mice. Aggressive Behavior 1, 111-121.

Greatest levels of aggression were found in cages that had ungergone incomplete cleaning, such as renewal of substrate only.

Hoffmann, H., Rist, M. 1975. Tiergerecht und arbeitswirtschaftlich g?nstige Anbindevorrichtungen f?r K?he. Schweizer Landwirtschaftliche Monatshefte 53, 119-126.

Recumbent cattle need considerable space in front of them to swing up into a standing position.

Hafez, E. S. E. 1975. The Behaviour of Domestic Animals, Third Edition. Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, MD.

Descriptions of species-typical behavior of domestic animals.

Fraser, D. 1975. The effect of straw on the behaviour of sows in tethered stalls. Animal Production 21, 59-68.

Offering straw to sows tethered in individual stalls had a recreational effect, reducing the incidence of stereotypic activities, including biting neighboring animals.

Fox, M. W. 1975. Evolution of social behavior in canids. In: The Wild Canids. Fox, M. W. (ed). Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, NY.

Dogs who have been handled as puppies show greater resistance to stress and greater disease tolerance than those who are have not been handled.

Euker, J. S., Meites, J., Riegle, G. D. 1975. Effects of acute stress on serum LH and prolactin in intact, castrate and dexamethasone-treated male rats. Endocrinology 96, 85-92.

Placing rats into transfer boxes and moving them to another room triggers a significant rise in plasma prolactin and LH.

Denny, M. S. 1975. The rat's long-term preference for complexity in its environment. Animal Learning and Behavior 3, 245-249.

Single-housed rats demonstrated a marked preference for high complexity during 'day' conditions probably because spatial complexity elicited shelter/relaxation responses. Complexity seemed to reduce the arousal level of the subject. .... The most attractive compartment [of...

Chance, M. R. A. 1975. Social cohesion and the structure of attention. In: Biosocial Anthropology. Fox, R. (ed), 93-113. John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY.
Ames, D. R. 1974. Sound stress and meat animals. Proceedings of the International Livestock Environment Symposium SP-0174, 324 (Abstract).

Continuous expose to sounds over 100 dB reduced daily weight gain. However, continuous background sound [75 dB], or instrumental music increased daily weight gains in sheep.

Southwick, C. H., Siddiqi, M. F., Farooqui, M. Y. et al. 1974. Xenophobia among free-ranging rhesus groups in India. In: Primate Aggression, Territoriality, and Xenophobia. Holloway, R. L. (ed), 185-209. Academic Press, New York, NY.

Xenophobia, defined as intolerance and aggression toward social strangers of the same species, is a characteristic of both captive and free-ranging groups of rhesus monkeys.

Ott, J. N. 1974. The importance of laboratory lighting as an experimental variable. In: Environmental Variables in Animal Experimentation . Magalhaes, H. (ed), 39-57. Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA.

The importance of light and illumination as extraneous variable is discussed. My suggestion is that the cage conditions are too crowded in our present racks, and there should be the same lighting for all cages...

Nagel, V. , Kummer, H. 1974. Variation in cercopithecoid aggressive behavior. In: Primate Aggression, Territoriality, and Xenophobia. Holloway, R. (ed), 159-184. Academic Press, New York, NY.