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    Facial expression : an under-utilised tool for the assessment of welfare in mammals

    Descovich, Kris; Wathan, J.; Leach, M.C.; Buchanan-Smith, H. M.; Flecknell, P.; Farningham, D.; Vick, S. J.

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    Date
    2017-02-08
    Citation:
    Descovich, K. A., Wathan, J., Leach, M.C., Buchanan-Smith, H.M., Flecknell, P., Farningham, D., & Vick, S.J. (2017). Facial expression: An under-utilised tool for the assessment of welfare in mammals. ALTEX Alternatives to Animal Experimentation, 34(3), pp.409-429. doi:10.14573/altex.1607161
    Permanent link to Research Bank record:
    https://hdl.handle.net/10652/4121
    Abstract
    Animal welfare is a key issue for industries that use or impact upon animals. The accurate identification of welfare states is particularly relevant to the field of bioscience, where the 3Rs framework encourages refinement of experimental procedures involving animal models. The assessment and improvement of welfare states in animals depends on reliable and valid measurement tools. Behavioral measures (activity, attention, posture and vocalization) are frequently used because they are immediate and non-invasive, however no single indicator can yield a complete picture of the internal state of an animal. Facial expressions are extensively studied in humans as a measure of psychological and emotional experiences but are infrequently used in animal studies, with the exception of emerging research on pain behavior. In this review, we discuss current evidence for facial representations of underlying affective states, and how communicative or functional expressions can be useful within welfare assessments. Validated tools for measuring facial movement are outlined, and the potential of expressions as honest signals is discussed, alongside other challenges and limitations to facial expression measurement within the context of animal welfare. We conclude that facial expression determination in animals is a useful but underutilized measure that complements existing tools in the assessment of welfare.
    Keywords:
    animal welfare, facial expressions, emotions, communication, pain
    ANZSRC Field of Research:
    070207 Humane Animal Treatment, 060801 Animal Behaviour

    Copyright Notice:
    This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is appropriately cited.
    Rights:
    This digital work is protected by copyright. It may be consulted by you, provided you comply with the provisions of the Act and the following conditions of use. These documents or images may be used for research or private study purposes. Whether they can be used for any other purpose depends upon the Copyright Notice above. You will recognise the author's and publishers rights and give due acknowledgement where appropriate.
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    • Natural Sciences Journal Articles [148]

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