Delayed Imitation of Lipsmacking Gestures by Infant Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta)

Human infants are capable of accurately matching facial gestures of an experimenter within a few hours after birth, a phenomenon called neonatal imitation. Recent studies have suggested that rather than being a simple reflexive-like behavior, infants exert active control over imitative responses and ‘provoke’ previously imitated gestures even after a delay of up to 24 h. Delayed imitation is regarded as the hallmark of a sophisticated capacity to control and flexibly engage in affective communication and has been described as an indicator of innate protoconversational readiness. However, we are not the only primates to exhibit neonatal imitation, and delayed imitation abilities may not be uniquely human. Here we report that 1-week-old infant rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) who show immediate imitation of a lipsmacking gesture also show delayed imitation of lipsmacking, facilitated by a tendency to refrain from lipsmacking toward a still face during baseline measurements. Individual differences in delayed imitation suggest that differentially matured cortical mechanisms may be involved, allowing some newborns macaques to actively participate in communicative exchanges from birth. Macaque infants are endowed with basic social competencies of intersubjective communication that indicate cognitive and emotional commonality between humans and macaques, which may have evolved to nurture an affective mother-infant relationship in primates

Hepatitis E Viruses : Emerging and Transboundary Animal Viruses

Hepatitis E virus (HEV), member of genus Orthohepevirus in the family Hepeviridae, is the leading cause of hepatitis E. More than 20 million cases of hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection have been reported globally, out of which 3.3 million suffered from symptomatic illness and 44,000 deaths were recorded. Hepatitis E is considered highly significant on account of its predominance in both developed and developing nations due to poor sanitation and low-grade drinking water. In India and Africa, the major cause of hepatitis E was water contaminated with faecal matter. Reports from East and Southeast Asia signified the role of animal reservoir, especially pigs, for HEV. In Western Asia, the major cases of hepatitis E were associated with blood transfusion. However, in Europe and South and North America, the significant causes of hepatitis E were associated with the consumption of pork products. Till date, major rely is on the enzyme immunoassays involving antibodies for detection and diagnosis purpose. Still, there is a need for the improvement and development of new approaches and methods for diagnosing hepatitis E virus as well as developing HEV vaccines