Facial Expression: An Under-Utilized Tool for the Assessment of Welfare in Mammals

409 Received July 16, 2016; Accepted February 1, 2017; Epub February 8, 2017; doi:10.14573/altex.1607161 mal Welfare Act of 1966, last amended 20132; the UK Animal Welfare Act of 20063, and the New Zealand Animal Welfare Act, 1999, last amended 20154. The issue of animal welfare is particularly pertinent for the biosciences, where there is both an ethical and legal duty to minimize the impact of experimentation on animal models through refinement (e.g., EU Directive 2010/63/EU5, UK Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act of 1986, consolidated 20146) although such legislation does not cover all experimental animal models, for example, in the US, rats, mice, birds and farm animals used in bioscience are not covered by the US Animal Welfare Act2. This duty also extends beyond