NationStates Jolt Archive

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090522/ts_afp/australiaanimalenvironmentdevil

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia's Tasmanian devil, the world's largest surviving marsupial carnivore, will be listed as endangered because of a contagious and deadly cancer, the government said.

"This disease has led to the decline of about 70 percent of the Tasmanian devil population since the disease was first reported in 1996," Environment Minister Peter Garrett said in a statement.

Devil facial tumour disease, which is spread through biting, kills the animals usually within three months by growing over their faces and mouths, preventing them from eating.

Early European settlers named the feisty marsupial the devil for its spine-chilling screeches, dark appearance and reputed bad temper which, along with its steeltrap jaw, made it appear incredibly fierce.

The animals were previously listed as vulnerable, and Garrett said the change in status to endangered would give them greater protection under national environment law.

"Fortunately, strong action is being taken to find out more about this disease and to stop its spread," he said.

The government had committed 10 million dollars (7.5 million US) over five years to a program aimed at saving the devil, including research into the disease and support for captive and wild populations, he said.

The species is restricted to the island state of Tasmania after competition from the dingo led to its extinction on mainland Australia.

It is Australia's largest marsupial carnivore after the extinction last century of its distant cousin, the thylacine or Tasmanian tiger.

Although the plight of the Tazmanian devil is sad and worrisome, what concerns me is the prospect of contagious cancer. I know this particular strain of the disease is endemic to this animal, I'm not making any assumptions that it can spread to humans, but it makes me wonder. Can cancer mutate in such a way that it may be able to spread by, say, the transmission of bodily fluids like saliva or blood?

Doctors of NSG, can it happen? Why? Can't happen? Why not?

Hardly surpirsing.

Clearly we need to declare Wabbit Season to help the Devil come back from the brink of exctinction.

http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/watchdog/blog/taz-tired.gif

Taz sad. :(

Contagious cancer? Fuck, well that's all we need. Bah, lets just nuke Tasmania from orbit and cut our losses.

well yeah it can spread if humans ever got such a disease but don't expect to see rampaging zombies clubbing people to death with their lumps

taz-mania was terrible good riddance I say!

Contagious cancer? Fuck, well that's all we need. Bah, lets just nuke Tasmania from orbit and cut our losses.

The contagious strain is only in Tazmanian Devils. But it posses an interesting and frightening possibility that the cancer humans suffer may mutate and become contagious. I would like to know if this is possible.

I was unaware cancer could become contagious. is this some kind of weird 'it's like cancer, but it's a virus, but we'll call it cancer' thing? Whatever it is, it's not cool.

I was unaware cancer could become contagious. is this some kind of weird 'it's like cancer, but it's a virus, but we'll call it cancer' thing? Whatever it is, it's not cool.

Well, it's a cancerous malady that affects the Tazmanian devils. A facial tumour disease, contagious and spread through biting. I do wonder if cancer can be viral too. But all I knew about the disease is that it's just the cells displaying uncontrolled growth. I thought it was a cell-related disease.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer

The cancer is spread because of the way the animals bite each others faces as part of their normal behaviour, so their own cut faces come into contact with the cancer. This wouldn't normally be a problem but because the population is so small they are inbred and very closely related to each other. Because their natural behaviour is to fight from a young age the cancer kills them before they reach breeding age so any chance of immunity developing is removed.

It is a freak set of circumstances working together.

Humans have a "contagious cancer" too. Remember the cervical cancer vaccine? I suspect this is a similar kind of deal.

Dang I wanted to go shoot one of those.

Pretty much every disease will become communicable. AIDS could become airbourne tomorrow or thousands of years from now. But it will happen.

Humans have a "contagious cancer" too. Remember the cervical cancer vaccine? I suspect this is a similar kind of deal.

True enough. I forgot about that one.

Well that's not entirely the case. the HPV vaccine immunises against a virus that increases the occurance of many, many diseases, not just cervical cancer. the cancer itself is not contagious. I was wondering if this tasmanian problem was like that.

Well that's not entirely the case. the HPV vaccine immunises against a virus that increases the occurance of many, many diseases, not just cervical cancer. the cancer itself is not contagious. I was wondering if this tasmanian problem was like that.

I intend on reading more about this cancer affecting the Tasmanian creature.