There’s plenty of research into cats and dogs in Switzerland. Other animals don’t get as much attention. | Illustration: Laura Junger

Howling with wolves

The members of a wolf pack have to cooperate with each other – when raising their young, when hunting and when defending their territory. The basis for this is good communication through sounds and body language. But domestic dogs are in a different situation. They live with humans and aren’t dependent on cooperating with other members of their own species.

“It stands to reason that dogs must have lost some of this ability to communicate over the course of their domestication”, says Gwendolyn Wirobski, a behavioural scientist at the University of Neuchâtel. She’s currently investigating whether dogs are less effective than wolves at communicating and cooperating with each other. To this end, she’s working with the Wolf Science Center at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna to compare wolf packs with groups of domestic dogs who’ve grown up under identical conditions. They’re observing aspects of their behaviour such as how they react to unfamiliar scent markings, and whether they cooperate in obtaining food.

Findings so far have suggested that dogs are indeed less skilled than wolves when it comes to communicating with each other. But domestication has given them other communicative abilities, for dogs are better than their wild ancestors at interpreting the words and gestures of human beings.

A cat’s intestine in a petri dish

Roughly a third of all human beings suffer from chronic toxoplasmosis. This parasitic single-cell organism enters the environment from the intestines of cats, where so-called oocysts form and are then excreted in their faeces. Toxoplasmosis can cause complications for infected humans during pregnancy. “The oocyst stage offers one of the best times to stop the spread of the parasite”, says Chandra Ramakrishnan, a cell biologist at the Vetsuisse Faculty of the University of Zurich.

In order to understand these processes better, one would have to infect cats with the parasite. But that would be unethical and therefore unjustifiable, says Ramakrishnan. So she and her fellow researchers want to cultivate mucosal cells from the small intestines of cats in their lab and then infect them with toxoplasmosis. This would enable them to determine the molecular processes that lead to the formation of oocysts, and also help them to develop the means to prevent it. Many previous researchers have failed to establish just such a model, but the team in Zurich is hoping for a breakthrough.

Slow food for horses

“Open stabling for horses is highly recommended”, says Marie Roig-Pons, an ethologist at the Vetsuisse Faculty of the University of Bern. That means letting horses share pasture and shelter, not keeping them in individual stalls. “This corresponds to their natural, social needs”. In Switzerland, roughly half of all horses are kept this way. For young horses, it’s even mandatory.

But feeding them is a problem. If feed is freely available, some animals become overweight. And if they’re allowed two hours for feeding, three times a day – as has been traditionally the case – then conflict can arise, leading to injuries. There are also concerns that making horses endure a long night-time period without feeding can result in stomach problems.

This is why Roig-Pons has been testing a new feeding strategy at Agroscope’s Swiss National Stud Farm in Avenches, namely six feeding times comprising one hour each, but spread over the course of 24 hours. She’s been observing how different feeding methods have affected the group dynamics and well-being of 17 mares living in an open stable.

It’s been a surprise to her that the smaller food portions on offer had no positive impact when compared to traditional feeding. “It’s possible that the night-time meals and the shorter, one-hour time-windows interfere with their resting behaviour and group interactions”, says Roig-Pons. The best results have been achieved with so-called ‘slow feeding’, where food is freely available but presented in a form – such as tightly packed in nets – that compels the horses to eat slowly.

A dog’s life with the Romans

Excavations at the Roman settlements of Augusta Raurica and Vindonissa (near Basel and Brugg respectively) have turned up dog bones at the bottom of ancient wells. Analysing them has now provided unique insights into the living conditions of dogs almost 2,000 years ago.

“They seem to have been doing astonishingly well”, says Ben Krause-Kyora. He works at the Christian Albrecht University in Kiel in Germany, but was involved in this project at the University of Basel. They examined the bones of 31 different animals, but found no traces of pathogens at all. Their chemical analyses also revealed that the dogs enjoyed a balanced diet with plenty of animal protein. It’s quite possible that they were fed from the leftovers of meals eaten by their owners.

The researchers also discovered different genetic lines, suggesting that a variety of dog breeds already existed at that time. The Romans would have had guard dogs and sheepdogs, but presumably also family pets, just like we have today. Three of the dogs had very short legs, while one of them had an extremely short head, not unlike today’s miniature dogs. But it remains a mystery why the dead dogs were thrown into wells.

Healthy skin and hair for kitty

Tosso Leeb is based at the Vetsuisse Faculty of the University of Bern, and every week he gets enquiries from people all over the world wanting information about mysterious skin diseases in cats and dogs. His job involves hunting for the genetic causes, and he and his team have already identified over fifty hereditary diseases in these animals.

For example, there was the case of two Californian street cats who were suffering from an impaired function of their sebaceous gland, hair loss and eye problems. Leeb’s analysis revealed a genetic defect that affects the fat metabolism. And since it alters the composition of tear fluid, it affects both the skin and the eyes.

The majority of such rare diseases occur in purebred animals. This is due to the inbreeding that’s necessary to keep a breed pure, making it more likely that a kitten will inherit the same defective gene from both its parents. But “once we’ve identified a genetic defect, we can control mating in such a way that there are no more sick offspring”, says Leeb. “This is why reputable breeders are happy to work with us”. His research is also providing new insights into skin diseases in humans because our biological mechanisms are very similar.

Don’t forget the guinea pigs

In Switzerland, there are roughly as many guinea pigs, hamsters and other small rodents as there are dogs. That’s more than half a million. But there’s been almost no published research about their state of health – neither in Switzerland nor anywhere else. “It’s very challenging to find the funding for it, not to mention skilled, motivated researchers and sufficient high-quality data”, says Dan O’Neill, an epidemiologist specialising in household pets at the Royal Veterinary College in Hatfield in the UK.

But the effort is worth it, as has been proven by a study that O’Neill has overseen that evaluated clinical records on more than 50,000 guinea pigs under primary veterinary care in the UK. More than a quarter of the animals had claws that were too long. This suggests that they were getting insufficient exercise, which can lead to pain and inflammation. Some five percent of them suffered from the skin disease ringworm or a corneal ulcer.

“Our findings can make a contribution to better care”, says O’Neill. “We humans actually constitute the main health risk to guinea pigs, because we determine their environment and their diet”. He believes that his results are also applicable to other European countries, as guinea pig husbandry is quite similar everywhere. His institute is also using data from veterinary practices to conduct studies into other small animals such as rabbits.