Once found widely throughout Australia, Tasmanian devils are now indigenous only to the island state of Tasmania. The Australian government has listed the large carnivorous marsupials as vulnerable due to the spread of an unusual contagious cancer called devil facial tumour disease (DFTD).
The illness, which was first found in 1996, causes Tasmanian devils to develop large lumps around their heads and mouths. DFTD is transmitted when cancer cells enter bite wounds.
“They take hold because the immune system doesn’t recognize it as a foreign body. I think a big part of that is because genetic diversity is really low in the devils, so it just takes hold and starts growing,” said USask student and alumnus Paul Lamp (BSc’19), who is currently pursuing a master’s degree in the College of Arts and Science’s Department of Computer Science.
“It’s a horrendous disease. They eventually die because of starvation because they can’t feed themselves anymore. It breaks the bones and everything once it gets big enough.”
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Image via Chris Putnam.