Switzerland Today

Dear Swiss Abroad,

have you ever wondered what your dog, cat or horse is trying to tell you? It is easy to project human emotions on to our pets and that can make us especially bad at inter-species communication. It’s probably why Dr. Dolittle is a fictional character.

Keystone / Jean-Christophe Bott

In the news: Valais flooding, pharma funding and Swiss branding

Canton Valais is on high alert following heavy rainfall External linkin recent days coupled with melting snow. The Vispa river in Zermatt burst its banks this Friday morning and a debris flow also cut the road between Zermatt and Täsch. The train service between Visp and Zermatt has been interrupted, according to the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn, practically cutting off the mountain resort.

An initiative has been launched in Basel-City canton to fund the development of unprofitable medicinesExternal link. The initiative backed by the “Pharma for All” association wants the canton to set aside CHF70 million ($78 million) into a fund every year to develop antibiotics or eliminate drug shortages. The idea is that any increased taxation of Basel’s pharma companies like Novartis and Roche should cover the costs.

Food multinational Nestlé remains Switzerland’s most valuable brand even though it lost some brand appeal due to price increases. Other notable brand leaders include Rolex, UBS, ABB, Swiss Re and Swisscom.

2024 Invision

AI knows your dog better than you do.

The answer to an animal’s state of mind can usually be found in how it moves. For example, its gait changes when in pain and if it is having fun there is probably a change of facial expression.

Researchers at the Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) have developed a new open source tool called SuperAnimalExternal link that is capable of automatically recognising the location of key points, particularly joints, on more than 45 animal species, without human supervision.

This kind of automated behavioural analysis can provide a great deal of information about the state of health or intentions of an animal.

These advances, which are accessible to the research community, should be of particular interest to veterinarians, as well as biomedical research, when it comes to observing the behaviour of laboratory mice. Other species, such as birds, fish and insects, should soon be included in the model.