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. 
Liao, S.-C., Lyu, P.-X., Shen, S.-Y. et al. 2022. Effects of swimming pool conditions and floor types on white roman geese’s physical condition scores and behaviors in an indoor rearing system. Animals 12(23), 3273.

Biosecurity problems, including the continual risk of avian influenza spread by wild birds, have severely affected traditional free-range waterfowl production systems. Regulations and techniques for indoor goose production require more considerations for animal welfare. This...

Mitin, H., Zulkifli, I., Che Jamri, M. H. et al. 2022. Alleviation of catching and crating stress by dietary supplementation of Bacillus subtilis in Pekin ducks. Animals 12(24), 3479.

Catching and crating may elicit stress and fear reactions in poultry because the procedures involve human contact and exposure to a novel environment. This study determined the effects of dietary probiotic supplementation on physiological stress...

Munday, C., Rose, P. 2022. Envirionmental and social influences on the behaviour of free-living mandarin ducks in richmond park. Animals 12(19), 2554.

Many species of birds are housed in zoos globally and are some of the most popular of animals kept under human care. Careful observations of how species live and behave in their natural habitats can...

Racciatti, D. S., Feld, A., Rial, L. A. et al. 2022. Ackonc-AWA: A multi-species animal welfare assessment protocol for wild animals under human care to overcome the use of generic welfare checklists. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9.

Maintaining a high level of animal welfare is essential in zoos, sanctuaries and aquaria for ethical, legislative and functional reasons. Therefore, it is necessary to have welfare assessment protocols that can be incorporated into daily...

Ruge, L., Mancini, C. 2022. An ethics toolkit to support animal-centered research and design. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 891493.

Designers and researchers who work with animals need to employ an array of ethical competencies to guarantee the welfare of animals taking part in animal-centered research. The emerging field of Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI), which deals...

Schwarzer, A., Erhard, M., Schmidt, P. et al. 2022. Effects of stocking rate and environmental enrichment on the ontogeny of pecking behavior of laying hen pullets confined in aviary compartments during the first 4 weeks of life. Animals 12(19), 2639.

The objective of this study was to describe the ontogeny of the severe feather pecking (SFP), gentle feather pecking (GFP), aggressive pecking (AP), and enrichment pecking (EP) of non-beak-trimmed Lohmann Brown (LB)-pullets during the first...

Serrano, C., Antonio, J. 2022. Ultrasound guided surgery as a refinement tool in oncology research. Animals 12(23), 3445.

Refinement is one of the ethical pillars of the use of animals in research. Ultrasonography is currently used in human medicine as a surgical tool for guided biopsies and this idea can be applied to...

Xu, D., Shu, G., Liu, Y. et al. 2022. Farm animal enrichments improve the welfare of layer chicks and pullets: A comprehensive review. Animals 12(19), 2610.

Currently, cage housing is regarded as a global mainstream production system for laying hens. However, limited living space and confinement of birds in cages cause welfare and health problems, such as feather pecking, osteoporosis, obesity...

Zablocki-Thomas, P. B., Rogers, F. D., Bales, K. L. 2022. Neuroimaging of human and non-human animal emotion and affect in the context of social relationships. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 16, 994504.

Long-term relationships are essential for the psychological wellbeing of humans and many animals. Positive emotions and affective experiences (e.g., romantic or platonic love) seem to be closely related to the creation and maintenance of social...

van der Eijk, J. A. J., Gunnink, H., Melis, M. et al. 2022. Reducing stocking density benefits behaviour of fast- and slower-growing broilers. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 257, 105754.

The broiler industry has come under sustained pressure from welfare organizations to improve broiler welfare. Breed and stocking density are important factors for broiler welfare and are often specified as criteria for higher welfare systems...

Rose, P. (Ed.) 2022. The Behavioural Biology of Zoo Animals (1st Ed.). CRC Press, Boca Raton, USA. 367 p.

"Zoo animals" as a population are a diverse array of species from all around the globe. When managed in captivity, it is important that key aspects of natural ecology are factored into animal care, as...

Bist, R. B., Chai, L. 2022. Advanced strategies for mitigating particulate matter generations in poultry houses. Applied Sciences 12(22), 11323.

Poultry farming plays a key role in agricultural air emissions. Particulate matter (PM) level tends to be high in broiler and cage-free layer houses, that may impair health and welfare of animals and their caretakers...

Clark, F. E. 2022. Bridging pure cognitive research and cognitive enrichment. Animal Cognition 25(6), 1671–1678.

Cognitive enrichment is a growing subset of environmental enrichment for captive animals. However, it has been difficult for practitioners to design, implement, and evaluate relevant and appropriate cognitive challenges. Even though pure comparative cognition researchers...

Ginovart-Panisello, G. J., Iriondo Sanz, I., Panisello Monjo, T. et al. 2022. Trend and representativeness of acoustic features of broiler chicken vocalisations related to CO2. Applied Sciences 12(20), 10480.

The concentration of CO2 is relatively large in poultry farms and high accumulations of this gas reduce animal welfare. Good control of its concentration is crucial for the health of the animals. The vocalizations of...

Hepps Keeney, C., Harrison, T. M. 2022. Euthanasia complications in non-domestic species. Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens 3(4), 616–623.

There are very few studies describing euthanasia complications in non-domestic species. The goal of this study was to survey veterinarians to determine what complications may commonly occur during the euthanasia of non-domestic species. An online...

Riedel, A., Rieke, L., Kemper, N. et al. 2022. A place to be? Use of winter gardens with and without automatic enrichment devices by laying hens. Applied Sciences 12(7), 3650.

Since the abolition of beak trimming in laying hens in Germany, the importance of adequate enrichment material to help reduce feather pecking and cannibalism has grown. Here we tested an automatic enrichment device dosing grain...

Schwarzer, A., Rauch, E., Bergmann, S. et al. 2022. Risk factors for the occurrence of feather pecking in non-beak-trimmed pullets and laying hens on commercial farms. Applied Sciences 12(19), 9699.

Severe feather pecking (SFP) is a behavioral disorder, for which there are multifactorial reasons. Various aspects of pullet and laying-hen husbandry—including housing conditions, management, feeding, and genetics—must be considered, to prevent negative outcomes, such as...

Woods, J. M., Eyer, A., Miller, L. J. 2022. Bird welfare in zoos and aquariums: General insights across industries. Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens 3(2), 198–222.

Animal welfare is a priority across accredited zoological institutions; however, historically, research has been prioritized for mammals. Bird-focused studies accounted for less than 10% of welfare research in zoos and aquariums over the last ten...

Le Neindre, P., Deputte, B. L. 2022. Interacting with Animals. Understanding their Behaviour and Welfare. CABI, Wallingford, Oxon. 120 p.

Animal behaviour and, as a result, animal welfare are increasingly complex areas of study, with the diversity of the animal kingdom and new research findings ensuring there is no one, easy answer. Instead, we need...

Wilkerson, J., Cavanaugh, K. 2022. As the world turns: Identifying and documenting continuing education for IACUC committee members and staff. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 10(6) (November/December), 36-38.

In this column, we will describe how the IACUC Office at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) identifies and documents the participation of IACUC members and staff in continuing education opportunities. The prioritization...

Mumm, L. E., Mans, C. 2022. Evaluation of dexmedetomidine-midazolam sedation in budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus). Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 260(10), 1194–1199.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the sedative effects of IM administration of a high or low dose of dexmedetomidine in combination with midazolam in budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus). ANIMALS 20 healthy adult budgerigars. PROCEDURES In a prospective, randomized...

Sartini, I., Łebkowska-Wieruszewska, B., Gbylik-Sikorska, M. et al. 2022. Acetaminophen pharmacokinetics in geese. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 260(12), 1–8.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the pharmacokinetics of acetaminophen (APAP) after single-dose IV and PO in the goose; to quantify APAP and its main metabolites in goose muscle, heart, lung, liver, and kidney; and to perform a...

Wotton, S., Grist, A., O’Callaghan, M. et al. 2021. Head-only stunning of turkeys Part 2: Subjective and objective assessment of the application of AC and DC waveforms. Animals 11(2), 286.

Electrical stunning is likely to remain an important stunning method for turkeys at slaughter. The purpose of this study is to understand the application of various waveforms of alternating current (AC) and pulsed direct currents...

Gebhardt-Henrich, S. G., Stratmann, A., Stamp Dawkins, M. 2021. Groups and individuals: Optical flow patterns of broiler chicken flocks are correlated with the behavior of individual birds. Animals 11(2), 568.

Group level measures of welfare flocks have been criticized on the grounds that they give only average measures and overlook the welfare of individual animals. However, we here show that the group-level optical flow patterns...

Corbani, T. L., Martin, J. E., Healy, S. D. 2021. The impact of acute loud noise on the behavior of laboratory birds. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 7, 607632.

Husbandry procedures and facility settings, such as low-frequency fire alarms, can produce noises in a laboratory environment that cause stress to animals used in research. However, most of the data demonstrating harmful effects that have...