[audio:http://wamcradio.org/EarthWise/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/EW-05-14-14-Tasmanian-Devils.mp3|titles=EW 05-14-14 Tasmanian Devils]
The Tasmanian devil is best known to most Americans as Taz, the cyclone-spinning cartoon character made popular by Warner Brothers in the fifties and again in the nineties.
But real Tasmanian devils – small marsupials found only on the Australian island of Tasmania – are quickly spiraling towards extinction due to an infectious disease called devil facial tumor disease, or DFTD. The aggressive parasitic cancer is 100 % lethal.
Since its discovery in 1996, it has decimated the Tasmanian devil population. DFTD is spread when Tasmanian devils bite each other’s heads during scuffles related to food or mating. Tasmanian devil numbers have decreased 70 percent since 1996. Even more alarming, 80 percent of remaining animals are thought to be infected with the disease.
Without intervention, Tasmanian devils may well become extinct within ten years. Their last hope may rely on a team of researchers that are using DFTD as a test-bed for understanding the spread of infectious diseases. Thanks to funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, they have a rare opportunity to study the genomic interactions of an infectious disease and its host across the entire species’ range.
Results could prove critical, and not just for the survival of the Tasmanian devil. The team is working to reveal the genetic basis of Tasmanian devils’ susceptibility to the tumors, which will help identify animals best suited for captive breeding programs. But they also hope their work will provide insight into infectious diseases in other animals – including the spread of flu in humans and the progression of certain cancers.
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Photo, taken April 7, 2009, courtesy of James Stewart via Flickr.
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