OT Research Suggests Infectious Cancer May Have Role in Tasmanian Devil Disease
- From: J <studras@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 03 Feb 2006 03:09:37 -0500
er...don't bite off someone's tumor and implant it into yourself?
J
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=1573514
By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press Writer
Report Suggests Cancer in Tasmanian Devils
Research Suggests Infectious Cancer May Have Role in Tasmanian Devil
Disease
CANBERRA, Australia Feb 2, 2006 ? A mysterious illness that has killed
tens of thousands of Tasmanian devils is caused by cancerous tumors that
are spread by ferocious squabbling among the carnivorous marsupials,
according to research published Thursday.
Numbers of the black, fox-sized scavengers with a bloodcurdling growl and
powerful jaws that crunch through the bones of much larger animals have
plunged in the past decade on Australia's island state of Tasmania, which
is their only natural habitat.
Researchers estimate the wild population has fallen from 140,000 in the
1990s to 80,000 due to devil facial tumor disease (DFTD), a mystery
illness that creates grotesque tumors on the animals' snouts that lead to
starvation within a year.
But while many scientists had suspected a virus, the journal Nature
published research Thursday that points to a unique, infectious cancer
that is spread when devils bite each other, usually on the face, as they
violently squabble over carcasses.
Cytogeneticist Anne-Marie Pearse, a researcher for the state of Tasmania
who co-wrote the article, found that abnormalities in the chromosomes of
the cancer cells were the same in every tumor.
The disease apparently began with a single sick devil, probably in the
mid-1990s, that directly spread the cancer cells by biting rivals, which
is natural devil behavior, she said.
"Devils jaw wrestle and bite each other a lot, usually in the face and
around the mouth, and bits of tumor break off one devil and stick in the
wounds of another," Pearse told The Associated Press.
"We've found out how the disease is transmitted, which is a breakthrough
in how we manage the wildlife population," she said.
"Finding a vaccine would be the ultimate goal," she added.
She suspected the continual line of cancer cells that had outlived its
original host by years would attract interest from researchers of human
cancer.
The only other such cancer occurred in dogs but, unlike the devils'
disease, could be overcome by the canine immune system.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/tasmanian-devil-disease-identified-as-a-cancer/2006/02/02/1138836372919.html
By Andrew Darby
February 3, 2006
THE disease devastating Tasmanian devils has been identified as a rare
infective cancer, a finding that improves the chances of controlling it.
Devil facial tumour disease is transmitted between the marsupials by
biting, and the discovery means that quarantined, disease-free animals are
more likely to stay healthy.
Researchers had been concerned that it could have been transmitted
virally. Tens of thousands of devils are thought to have died in the past
decade.
A paper published in the journal Nature yesterday established that the
tumours were clones transmitted by allograft ? that is, transmitted from a
donor of the same species.
Notoriously quarrelsome, devils readily bite each other.
"The tumour just breaks off and becomes implanted in the wound," said
author Anne-Maree Pearse, of the Tasmanian Department of Primary
Industries' Mount Pleasant laboratories.
"This cancer arose in one devil. That devil is dead, but the cancer is
still going from animal to animal by biting."
The cause of the rogue cell line that became the infective agent remains
unknown, but Mrs Pearse said the chromosome arrangement of all the tumours
was identical, unlike virtually all other cancers.
Environment Minister Judy Jackson said the finding reinforced the
correctness of wildlife officers' work in keeping sick devils away from
healthy ones by establishing insurance populations in quarantine areas.
Suppression trials are under way at the Forestier Peninsula, east of
Hobart, where diseased devils are being trapped and removed.
Some national parks in the north and west of Tasmania also remain
disease-free.
But at Narawntapu National Park, north-west of Launceston, the isolated
healthy population is coming under pressure.
The state's devil disease project leader, Alistair Scott, said the disease
turned up last month in a road-kill animal about 10 kilometres from the
park.
"A total of 123 devils have been trapped in the park in 1575 trap nights
since April 2004," he said. "This month (January) 96 devils have been
trapped in the park. None have shown signs of the disease."
.
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