i fear for the devils what became of the thylacineStudy: Facial cancer killing Tasmanian devils
Thursday, February 2, 2006; Posted: 10:18 a.m. EST (15:18 GMT)
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Tasmanian devils, animals found only in Tasmania, are dying in droves from a facial cancer that scientists said on Wednesday they are spreading to each other through bites.
In a report in the journal Nature, the scientists said a genetic analysis of the cancer shows the tumors are identical in each animal they studied.
"We propose that the disease is transmitted by ... an infectious cell line passed directly between the animals through bites they inflict on one another," said Anne-Maree Pearse, of the Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment (DPIWE) in Tasmania.
Tasmanian devils are marsupials, mammals which carry their young in a pouch.
The mostly black, dog-sized animals, the world's largest surviving carnivorous marsupials, acquired their name because of their spine-chilling screech.
The cancer produces large tumors on the face and neck of the animals which interfere with feeding and death usually occurs within six months. Up to 80 percent of infected animals have died.
Scientists suspect infected animals pass on the malignant cells when they bite each other during a fight or courtship.
Pearse and a colleague found the tumors had 13 rather than the normal 14 chromosomes. The chromosomes were abnormal but their arrangement was identical in tumors taken from different animals.
They suspect the low genetic diversity of the animals might reduce their immune response to the cancerous cell transferred during biting.
Scientists in Tasmania are trying to separate infected animals from healthy ones to limit the spread of the disease.
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i wish there were still devils in zoos in the US
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