Re: Is mental retardation exclusive to humans ???

Animals, because their basic cell biology and genetics are similar to
humans, are prone to similar diseases.  Thus animals can get genetic
diseases and have problems in development.  In humans mental retardation
can be caused by a variety of disorders including problems in chromosomal
separation as occurs in Down's syndrome and due to genetic conditions such
as Fragile X.  Since at the cellular level we are very similar to other
animals they are all prone to such problems and therefore would be expected
to have cases of mental retardation.

Hope this helps,
Gabriel Vargas, M.D. PhD

References:

UC Davis Vet School Genetics Lab(they discuss genetic problems which can
lead to mental retardation in horses) http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/horse/hrsekary.htm

Principles of Medical Genetics
by Thomas D., Md. Gelehrter, Francis S., Md. Ph.D. Collins, Thomas F.
Gelehrter, David Ginsburg