Primate species have been increasingly threatened by legal and illegal trade in China, mainly for biomedical research or as pets and traditional medicine, yet most reports on trade from China regard international trade. To assess a proxy for amount of national primate trades, we quantified the number of reports of native primate species featuring in unique web news reports from 2000 to 2017, including accuracy of their identification, location where they were confiscated or rescued, and their condition upon rescue. To measure temporal trends across these categories, the time span was divided into three sections: 2000-2005, 2006-2011 and 2012-2017. A total of 735 individuals of 14 species were reported in 372 news reports, mostly rhesus macaques (n=165, 22.5%, Macaca mulatta) and two species of slow lorises (n=487, 66.3%, Nycticebus spp.). During the same period, live individuals of rhesus macaques were recorded 206 times (70,949 individuals) in the CITES Trade Database, whereas slow lorises were only recorded four times (9 individuals), indicating that the species originated illegally from China or were illegally imported into China. Due to their rescued locations in residential areas (n=211, 56.7%), most primates appeared to be housed privately as pets. A higher proportion of ‘market’ rescues during 2006-2011 (χ2=8.485, df=2, p=0.014), could be partly attributed to an intensive management on wildlife markets since the outbreak of SARS in 2003. More than half (68.3%, 502 individuals) of the primate individuals were unhealthy, injured or dead when rescued. Thus, identification and welfare training and capacity-building should be provided to husbandry and veterinary professionals, as well as education to the public through awareness initiatives. The increase in presence of some species, especially slow lorises, with a declining population in restricted areas, also suggests the urgent need for public awareness about the illegal nature of keeping these taxa as pets.

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Background: Zinc finger protein X-linked (Zfx) was regarded to be a sex determination factor, and plays a critical role in spermatogenesis. RNAi is an effective method of silencing Zfx/Zfy mRNA expression. However, there has been little research on the use of RNAi technology to control the sex of the offspring of Cervus elaphus. The objective of this study was first to explore an efficient method to alter the Cervus elaphus offspring sex-ratio by silencing the genes Zfx during spermatogenesis.Results: Three recombinant expression vectors pLL3.7/A, pLL3.7/B and pLL3.7/C were constructed to interrupt the Zfx gene. The results showed that the expression of Zfx mRNA was significantly silenced by pLL3.7/A (P < 0.01), compared with the control group. The group injected with pLL3.7/A produced 94 Cervus elaphus, including 68 males and 26 females. The male rates (72.34%) were significantly higher than the control groups (P < 0.01).Conclusions: Our experiment suggest that the Zfx gene plays a significant role in the process of X-sperm formation. Zfx siRNA may be a useful approach to control offspring sex in Cervus elaphus.

Innovation has been elevated beyond the traditional forces of production, by the emergence of a new wave of industrial upgrading and the technological revolution, to become a significant force in the advancement of human society. Can an enterprise group, a significant type of industrial organization, improve the effectiveness of enterprise innovation? Here, a quantitative analysis approach was used to systematically analyze the impact of group control on enterprise innovation effectiveness and its transmission path based on the logical framework of the “policy environment-influence effect-influence path”. The study found that group control significantly improves the effectiveness of enterprise innovation compared to independently listed enterprises. The impact path showed that group control can reduce financing constraints through internal capital markets. It increases the investment in innovation and thus enhances the effectiveness of enterprise innovation. Meanwhile, internal information exchange is accelerated through the internal knowledge market, improving enterprise innovation’s effectiveness. The results of this study were still valid after robustness tests, such as propensity score matching and accounting for lag effects. According to the paper’s findings, to enhance financial support for innovation, financial market reform should be intensified. The growth of manufacturing enterprise groups should also be encouraged. Additionally, the ability of businesses to innovate while improving the internal benefits of enterprise groups and their innovation paths should be strengthened.

Primate species have been increasingly threatened by legal and illegal trade in China, mainly for biomedical research or as pets and traditional medicine, yet most reports on trade from China regard international trade. To assess a proxy for amount of national primate trades, we quantified the number of reports of native primate species featuring in unique web news reports from 2000 to 2017, including accuracy of their identification, location where they were confiscated or rescued, and their condition upon rescue. To measure temporal trends across these categories, the time span was divided into three sections: 2000-2005, 2006-2011 and 2012-2017. A total of 735 individuals of 14 species were reported in 372 news reports, mostly rhesus macaques (n=165, 22.5%, Macaca mulatta) and two species of slow lorises (n=487, 66.3%, Nycticebus spp.). During the same period, live individuals of rhesus macaques were recorded 206 times (70,949 individuals) in the CITES Trade Database, whereas slow lorises were only recorded four times (9 individuals), indicating that the species originated illegally from China or were illegally imported into China. Due to their rescued locations in residential areas (n=211, 56.7%), most primates appeared to be housed privately as pets. A higher proportion of ‘market’ rescues during 2006-2011 (χ2=8.485, df=2, p=0.014), could be partly attributed to an intensive management on wildlife markets since the outbreak of SARS in 2003. More than half (68.3%, 502 individuals) of the primate individuals were unhealthy, injured or dead when rescued. Thus, identification and welfare training and capacity-building should be provided to husbandry and veterinary professionals, as well as education to the public through awareness initiatives. The increase in presence of some species, especially slow lorises, with a declining population in restricted areas, also suggests the urgent need for public awareness about the illegal nature of keeping these taxa as pets.