Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Saving the Tasmanian Devil Population


            During a time in which so many species are on the verge of going extinct, biologists in Australia are making an effort to conserve what’s left of the Tasmanian devil population. The Tasmanian devil is an endangered species living on the island of Tasmania, which is off the coast of Australia. Many species in Tasmania are unique to only that area so it’s important to give these species the best chance of survival. The main reason for the dwindling population of the Tasmanian devil is a facial tumor that is extremely contagious called the devil facial tumor disease (or DFTD).

In an effort to conserve the population, a nature sanctuary has been made on Maria Island for fourteen healthy Tasmanian devils so that they can start a new population that isn’t plagued by the disease.  Authorities are calling this group an “insurance population” just in case the disease eliminates all the devils on Tasmania. Tasmanian devils have never inhabited Maria Island so scientist will be closely monitoring the ecosystem on the island to make sure that there will be no disruption with the introduction of this new population. If the transfer is successful two years down the line, scientists will bring more of these devils to Maria Island so that the population would be brought up to 50.

I found this article interesting because I have never heard of a cancer that can be contagious. I found out that this is one of the only forms of cancer in the world that is transmissible along with canine transmissible venereal tumor (CTVT) in dogs and reticulum cell sarcoma in Syrian hamsters. DFTD was discovered in 1996 and causes death within three to six months.  Due to habitat isolation, Tasmanian devils lack genetic diversity so the disease is able to spread quickly. The tumor cells are spread when a devil bites another diseased devil’s face during a dispute. As an interesting side note, the Tasmanian devil has the strongest bite force per body mass of all mammals. Hopefully this new population will have better luck on Maria Island so that this fascinating species can survive.

Posted by Poya Jafari (2)

18 comments:

  1. This is a great article! It's interesting because I had the one about the Tasmanian Tiger and how they went extinct because of human interference, but the Devil is dying of cancer. It must be from being so isolated for thousands of years, and the cancer took advantage of the lack of genetic diversity. I really hope to hear about progress of the Devil after they try to breed a group that are not affected by the cancer and can potentially sustain the population (at least for now)!

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  2. Do you have any more information on what ultimately causes fatalities in the animals, as well as fatality rates, and life span after infection?

    Michael Ball (1)

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  3. Very interesting. All it takes is something microscopic to eliminate a species. Hopefully a new population will arise and the DTFD will not arise in the new one so they can repopulate and maybe move back to their native island if the rest of the diseased population dies out.

    Sunni-Lynn Farias (1)

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  4. Is there any evidence of where this facial tumor first originated? Was it caused by the environment or do you think it was from another unrelated species?

    Kimberly Ty (3)

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    1. It is believed that the tumor originated in the Schwann cells of one devil because analysis of DFTD cells show that all strains are related. The infectious tumor then spread to other parts of the population having disastrous consequences. The fact that the disease started only on the eastern part of Tasmania and spread out from this area also proves that the DFTD strain started in only one individual.

      Poya Jafari (2)

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  5. Do you think that it is possible that when this species is introduced to Maria Island, that they can disrupt other species on that island, who may be endangered as well?

    Cynthia Bui (1)

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    3. According to the article, experts do not think that the introduction of the Tasmanian devils will affect the native species on Maria Island but they would be monitoring the ecosystem just in case.

      Poya Jafari (2)

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  6. I am amazed that this cancer is contagious. I have never heard of a cancer that spreads like this. Do you think that knowledge of how this is spread and metastasizes may bring light upon possible treatments for other kinds of cancer?

    Ashley Sterpka (1)

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    1. I think research into DFTD definitely has the potential for scientist to learn more about the characteristics of cancer and hopefully this could lead to treatments that could manage other forms of cancer as well.

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  7. I'm really surprised this cancer is contagious. It makes me wonder that if its transmitted through the devil's powerful bite, what if the scientists on Maria Island come across an infected devil and get bitten, would it transmit the cancer cells to humans? Its scary to think that if any kind of mistake occurs during this period of bringing the species out of endangerment, humans get bitten and infected with this kind of cancer that can then be transmitted from human to human.

    Gabrielle Wertheim (3)

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  8. I never knew of any cancer being contagious in any species, that is very interesting. What type of diet do these devils have? I hope they do not prove to be an invasive species on the new island.
    Tonya Sulham

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  9. Very interesting article, especially relating the DTFD and the fact that it is contagious. Are the species of contagious cancers found in dogs common? And do these two diseases have similar origins or related strains of the same cancer?
    Bryan Cohoon

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    1. The karyotypes of DFTD and CTVT are similar which is interesting. Both diseases are also similar because they are caused by tumor cells that are not genetically related to the host animal but instead these tumor cells are a distinct unicellular pathogen. It's thought that these cancers originated in a single individual and spread to other hosts.

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  10. It is amazing that there are types of cancer that are contagious! This proves how complex and mysterious cancer still is in the modern world. Do you think that since there is such little genetic diversity within this species that this epidemic will occur in the future on Maria Island?

    Lindsey Dugas (1)

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  11. I did some research to come up with the origin of this cancer, and why this cancer has been only found in Tasmanian Devils population. I was not able to find my answer, but realized that it was originated in the schwann cell of a single devil, most likely a female. The tumor cells are genetically identical in all the devils and these tumor cells are similar to the ones in Schwann cells. Hopefully, the Australian biologists will be able to conserve the population since devils live only about 8 years!

    Setareh Sepasi (1)

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  12. How is the cancer contagious? So tumor cells somehow get in the bite wound? Once this happens they travel through the blood and start growing on the face? What stops the devil's immune system from rejecting these foreign cells? The article did not say anything about a viral vector, as is the case in other "contagious" cancers,such as cervical-cancer caused by HPV.
    It's scary to think of cancers spreading through social behaviors as in these two examples.

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