Posted on 12/31/2009 12:24:32 PM PST by americanophile
The Tasmanian devil, the spaniel-size marsupial found on the Australian island of Tasmania, has been hurtling toward extinction in recent years, the victim of a bizarre and mysterious facial cancer that spreads like a plague.
Now Australian scientists say they have discovered how the cancer originated. The finding, being reported Friday in the journal Science, sheds light on how cancer cells can sometimes liberate themselves from the hosts where they first emerged. On a more practical level, it also opens the door to devising vaccines that could save the Tasmanian devils.
“It’s a great paper,” said Katherine Belov, a geneticist at the University of Sydney who was not involved in the study. “Previously, we were stumbling in the dark.”
The cancer, devil’s facial tumor disease, is transmitted when the animals bite each other’s faces during fights. It grows rapidly, choking off the animal’s mouth and spreading to other organs. The disease has wiped out 60 percent of all Tasmanian devils since it was first observed in 1996, and some ecologists predict that it could obliterate the entire wild population within 35 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Interesting. I had read about this disease a year ago.
What was added to their environment around then? If it remained in their teeth/claws, it found access to their bodies through the facial wounds.
The Davil is in the dEtails................
Pretty good. I saw it, but there’s not much you can do. You can’t get away with anything on FR. ;)
So Tasmanian Devils are hurtling toward extinctin because of face cancer and Koalas are hurtling toward extinction from an AIDS type virus?
Good grief what is going on down under?
If they have to bite each others face for it to spread than the population will dwindle until they don’t need to fight each other anymore. Extinction is therefore unlikely.
It’s Bush and Cheney’s fault! We need to give the Devils healthcare NOW!!!
Sad story for the devils, but also with major implications for all higher species. Up til now, the assumption has been that cancer cells have to be self-generated, they cannot be introduced to a foreign body. Analyzing this disease could prove that thesis wrong and may reveal problems in introducing foreign bodies into living creatures. Embryonic stem cells, anybody?
It's not clear why they would have had to evolve from Schwann cells. Many malignant cells express markers from "unrelated" cell types which is another indication of their mischievous nature.
Obama already has government healthcare.
They will have to be very few of them before that happens, perhaps too few to come back from the brink. Anyway, Tasmanian devils are generally scavengers and often several of them are seen at one road kill. They are nasty tempered critters (hence the name) and will fight fiercely even if there is plenty of food for all.
Bush’s fault
It certainly is both. Apart from losing the species forever, I feel so bad that these poor creatures suffer so horribly.
Dr. Pappenfuss
Not to be confused with Dr. Fussenpapp, who studies how tumor cells have evolved from Dhuuck cells.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.