Facial expression : an under-utilised tool for the assessment of welfare in mammals
Loading...
Supplementary material
Other Title
Authors
Descovich, Kris
Wathan, J.
Leach, M.C.
Buchanan-Smith, H. M.
Flecknell, P.
Farningham, D.
Vick, S. J.
Wathan, J.
Leach, M.C.
Buchanan-Smith, H. M.
Flecknell, P.
Farningham, D.
Vick, S. J.
Author ORCID Profiles (clickable)
Degree
Grantor
Date
2017-02-08
Supervisors
Type
Journal Article
Ngā Upoko Tukutuku (Māori subject headings)
Keyword
animal welfare
facial expressions
emotions
communication
pain
facial expressions
emotions
communication
pain
ANZSRC Field of Research Code (2020)
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
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.
Publisher
Altweb (Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT))
Permanent link
Link to ePress publication
DOI
doi:10.14573/altex.1607161
Copyright holder
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.