Threat to the Devil

Sources: The Hindu dated 01-03-2007

Wikipedia

Science News

Examiner.com

Photo Courtesy: Taken by Wayne McLean, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5

You are probably wondering what this devil is. Well…it is not a horrendous monster as you imagine but a small, weasel-like animal native to Australia. Its actual name is the Tasmanian Devil and it currently is in danger of being wiped out of this world. This creature which once inhabited throughout Australia is now confined to the state of Tasmania and its population is dwindling because of a facial cancer that is affecting them. I searched about this facial cancer in the Tasmanian Devil and I found the following piece of information from Wikipedia. Here you go…

The facial tumour is called Devil Facial Tumour Disease ( DFTD)

and it is a transmittable parasitic cancer. A parasitic cancer is something that spreads from animal to animal because of the cancer cells. Basically the cancer cells behave like a bacteria or a virus. It is just an example. The transmission was found to be via aggressive mating or biting during a fight. This phenomenon actually confused the researchers and they actually concluded that the cancer could actually be caused by a virus like HPV. Researchers have found out that it is a neuroendocrinal tumour which means it is a tumour occurring at the junction of the neuro endocrine system. What happens in the devil is that the cancer first develops as a lesion and then slowly grows as a lump and prevents the animal from feeding. It therefore dies of starvation.

The research on the tumour was done by Pearse of Tasmania's Department of Primary Industries and it has shown that the tumour cell chromosomal anomalies were identical in the animals they tested and this proved that it could not have been a virus and that it could have been a single affected cell that had spread among the devils.

The only way to prevent the wiping out of the devils is to isolate those which are affected from the healthy ones.