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Science of Devil Facial Tumour Disease

Home About Tasmanian Devils Devil Disease Science of DFTD Save the Tasmanian Devil Program FAQs Volunteering

The Story So Far
Research and Management
Collaborations
Latest Findings
Is DFTD related to Platypus Mucormycosis?
Save the Tasmanian Devil newsletters

The Story So Far

Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) appears to be a new disease that is restricted to Tasmanian devils. No affected animals were detected among the 2000-plus devils trapped by six biologists between 1964 and 1995.

The first cases discovered were found in north-east Tasmania in 1996. As at December 2008, DFTD had been confirmed at 64 separate sites covering more than 60% of the State.

DFTD is a contagious cancer that is spread between individuals, most probably through biting. Due to a lack of genetic diversity among Tasmanian devils their bodies don’t recognise the cells as foreign so the cells aren’t rejected by the animal’s immune system.

Animals usually die within a few months of the cancer becoming visible. Tasmanian devils appear to succumb between two and three years of age, although some juveniles as young as one have also become infected. This is resulting in very young age-structured populations in which females have only one breeding event, whereas they would normally have three.

Populations in which DFTD has been observed for several years have declined by up to 95% (approximate, due to low sample size in recent years), with no evidence to date of either of the decline stopping or the prevalence of the disease decreasing.

Research and Management

The Save the Tasmanian Devil Program has been established to investigate the disease and identify management options.

Coordinated by the Department, it involves researchers and experts from a range of institutions, including University of Tasmania, University of Queensland, University of Sydney, Murdoch University, and wildlife parks and zoos (both local and interstate).

The program focuses on the key areas of:

population monitoring in the field
wild management
captive breeding programs, and
disease diagnostics (a laboratory-based investigation of the disease itself, including its definition, transmission, and causes).

Collaborations

Partnerships between the Department and research institutions across Australia have played an important role in furthering our knowledge of DFTD. They also provide access to a wide range of resources and facilities.

Current collaborations include:

Institution	People	Project Scope and Title	Management / Knowledge
Wildlife Management & Monitoring Section, Save the Tasmanian Devil Program, DPIPWE; +UTAS Zoology
DPIPWE; UTAS Zoology	Menna Jones Stewart Huxtible Phil Wise	Disease suppression adaptive management	Disease suppression
DPIPWE; UTAS Zoology	Menna Jones Shelly Lachish Stewart Huxtible Kim Skogvold	Assessment of the size of the cryptic population	Insurance populations Disease suppression Extinction risk & process
DPIPWE; UTAS Zoology	Menna Jones David Sinn	Ageing protocols	all
DPIPWE; UTAS Zoology	David Sinn Clare Hawkins Menna Jones Chrissy Pukk Fiona Hume	Role of behavioural phenotype (personality) in susceptibility to DFTD	Spread of disease Rapid evolutionary response
DPIPWE; UTAS Zoology	David Sinn Menna Jones Lisa Cawthen Chrissy Pukk Sue Jones	Reintroduction protocols	Insurance populations Disease suppression Genetic resistance
DPIPWE	David Sinn	Developing protocols for Free Range Enclosures	Insurance populations
DPIPWE	Sam Fox Sam Thalmann	Movements of devils in relation to fences and landscape features by radiotracking	Insurance populations Disease suppression Genetic resistance

Diagnostic Section, Devil Program, DPIPWE
DPIPWE	Stephen Pyecroft, Colette Harmsen, Sarah Peck,	Investigation of chemotherapy agents suitable for the treatment of Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease	DFTD tumour treatment
DPIPWE	Stephen Pyecroft, Sarah Peck, Colette Harmsen, Anne-Maree Pearse	Further characterisation of the Devil Facial Tumour in wild Tasmanian Devils (Sarcophilus harrisii)	DFTD epidemiology
DPIPWE	Xianlan Cui, Bobby Hua	Mapping biomarkers in DFTD serum using phage display	ELISA for Preclinical diagnosis of DFTD
DPIPWE	Xianlan Cui, Martine Cornish, Bobby Hua	Development of an indirect immunofluorescent antibody test for detection of DFTD antibodies	IFAT for preclinical diagnosis of DFTD and DFTD vaccine development
DPIPWE	Xianlan Cui, Bobby Hua, Kate Swift, Colette Harmsen, Pamela Hodson	Development of a novel DFTD tumour vaccine	Vaccine development
DPIPWE	Xianlan Cui, Martine Cornish	Development of DFTD-specific monoclonal antibodies	Clinical diagnosis of DFTD
DPIPWE	Anne-Maree Pearse, Kate Swift, Linda Donachie, Robyn Taylor	Genetic evolution of DFTD in the wild devils	Tumour characterisation and evolution
DPIPWE	Anne-Maree Pearse, Kate Swift, Robyn Taylor, Linda Donachie	Use of Tasmanian devil BAC library to investigate chromosome 5 evolutionary relevance to tumour susceptibility	Tasmanian devil genetic studies for evolutionary relevance of tumour susceptibility
DPIPWE	Anne-Maree Pearse, Kate Swift	Role of telomeres in DFTD development and progression	Extinction risk & process Rapid evolutionary response

School of Zoology, University of Tasmania +collaborators
UTAS	Menna Jones Shelly Lachish Shannon Troy	Developing non-invasive techniques for survey of threatened carnivores: Tasmanian devils and spotted-tailed quolls	All aspects of monitoring and managing wild devils and quolls (ecosystem impacts)
UTAS; Griffith University	Hamish McCallum	Transmission dynamics and force of infection	Insurance populations Disease suppression Genetic resistance
UTAS	Menna Jones	Devil lineages through time and space & correlates of lineage survival. Changes in genetic mating system. Rapid evolution in devil’s response to DFTD, including: Changes in genetic diversity & selective regimes Heredity of traits that confer population resilience.	Insurance populations Disease suppression Genetic resistance Extinction risk & process
University of Queensland; UTAS, Zoology	Shelly Lachish (PhD) Supervisors: Hamish McCallum Menna Jones	Population, demographic & genetic impacts of DFTD. Dispersal patterns of devils. Population modelling to evalulate disease suppression.	Insurance populations Disease suppression
UTAS DPIPWE	Shelly Lachish	Develop population models in RMARK for analyses of long-term monitoring data & disease suppression
UTAS, Zoology	Rodrigo Hamede (PhD) Supervisors: Menna Jones Hamish McCallum	Social network of contacts & modelling of transmission. Epidemiology at the NW disease front – force of infection .	Insurance populations Disease suppression Genetic resistance
UTAS, Zoology	Nick Beeton (PhD) Supervisor: Hamish McCallum	Modelling DFTD dynamics, spatial spread and management	Insurance populations Disease suppression
UTAS, Zoology	Jim Bashford (Postdoc) Supervisor: Hamish McCallum	Network modelling of wildlife parasites and diseases, including DFTD	Insurance populations Disease suppression
UTAS, Zoology	Tracey Hollings (PhD) Supervisors: Hamish McCallum, Menna Jones	Ecosystem impacts of devil decline.	Ecosystem impacts Non-disease impacts
UTAS, Zoology	Shannon Troy (PhD) Supervisors: Menna Jones, Hamish McCallum, Sarah Munks, Clare Hawkins	Landscape ecology and genetics of spotted-tailed quolls. Habitat occupancy and demographics of devils and quolls at a regional scale, in relation to forestry and farming activities.	Ecosystem impacts Non-disease impacts
UTAS, Zoology	Anne Nielsen (Hons.) Supervisors: Hamish McCallum, Menna Jones, Peter Jarman	Responses of prey species to devil declline	Ecosystem impacts
Washington State University US; UTAS, Zoology; DPIPWE	Andrew Storfer Menna Jones Shelly Lachish Sam Fox	Landscape genetics of devils – devil gene flow and dispersal movements in relation to landscape features that may inform us about barriers.	All four management levers
University of Adelaide, Ancient DNA lab; University of Sydney; UTAS, Zoology; ANU / Sanger Institute Cambridge; DPIPWE Diagnostic Section Devil Program	Jeremy Austin (UAdel) Kathy Belov (USYD) Menna Jones (UTAS, DPIPWE) Chris Burridge (UTAS) Liz Murchison (ANU+ Cambridge) Anne-Maree Pearse (DPIPWE) Katrina Morris (PhD student USYD) PhD student (UTAS)	Molecular evolution of devils (fossil record through to present) Changes in diversity of neutral (mtDNA, msats) and functional (MHC, C5 inversion) genetic markers.	Insurance populations Genetic resistance Extinction risk & process
UTAS Zoology; Imperial College, London	Christl Donelly Shelly Lachish	Modelling tumour growth; latent period	Insurance populations Disease suppression
UTAS Zoology; University of Utrecht, Theoretical Epidemiology	Hamish McCallum Menna Jones Sylvia Keijser Hilda Brandenburg Hans van Heesterbeek	Modelling devil movements from two scales of trapping data (sites at 25km2 and 150km2)	Insurance populations Disease suppression
	Our group works in close collaboration with the Devil Program, Threatened Species Section, Kathy Belov, Greg Woods, Anne-Maree Pearse, Jeremy Austin.

Menzies Research Institute	Greg Woods (Associate Professor)	Immunology of devils & vaccine development	Vaccine Genetic resistance
	Alex Kreiss (Postdoctoral Research Fellow)	Identifying devils that show immune responses to DFTD	Vaccine Genetic resistance
	Cesar Tovar (PhD)	Understanding origin and nature of DFTD	Vaccine Genetic resistance
	Gabriella Brown (PhD)	Can devils immune system kill DFTD tumour cells - Cytotoxic T cell response	Vaccine Genetic resistance

UTAS, ACROSS Centre	Dr Michael Breadmore Dr Robert Shellie Dr Emily Hilder Ms Jessica Gathercole	Metabolomic and proteomic approaches to understand disease and their use in diagnostic testing.	Insurance populations Disease suppression

Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney	Kathy Belov	Studying the evolution of DFTD in the face of MHC-disparate (or genetically different) hosts. For this I will be studying changes in immune gene expression in DFTD cells, in particular looking for evidence of evolution of immune evasion.	Insurance populations Vaccine Genetic resistance
	Dr Hannah Siddle, NHMRC Postdoctoral Fellow.	Developing immunological reagents to study MHC expression on DFTD cells. She will also develop reagents to characterize T cell subsets.	Vaccine Genetic resistance
	Katrina Morris, PhD Student. Supervisor Kathy Belov, associate supervisors Menna Jones and Jeremy Austin	Looking at changes in MHC diversity over time. She is also studying cytokines and immune genes in Tasmanian devils.	Insurance populations Genetic resistance Extinction risk & process
	Yuanyuan Cheng, PhD Student. Supervisor Kathy Belov, Associate Supervisor Hannah Siddle	Developing MHC-linked microsatellite markers, studying MHC diversity, and characterizing the devil MHC by constructing a contig across the MHC.
	Our group works in close collaboration with Greg Woods, Menna Jones, Jeremy Austin, Tony Papenfuss, and the Mt Pleasant group

CCIA / UNSW; Penn State Univ	Vanessa Hayes Stephan Schuster Webb Miller	Devil genome project: Next G sequencing of devil and tumour genome	Insurance populations Vaccine Genetic resistance
CCIA / UNSW; UTAS Zoology; Penn State Univ; Menzies Research Institute	Vanessa Hayes Menna Jones Stephan Schuster Webb Miller Greg Woods	DiversiTyping the devil: development of ultimate SNP array; genotyping of insurance founders; heredity of traits	Insurance populations Genetic resistance

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute; ANU	Liz Murchison (postdoctoral research fellow)	DFTD cancer genome sequencing. DFTD transcriptome sequencing.	Genetic resistance

Latest Findings

For the latest research findings and a full list of recent and significant scientific papers visit: www.tassiedevil.com.au

and the Tasmanian Devil Information Database

Is DFTD related to the Platypus Mucormycosis?

Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) and the Platypus Mucormycosis disease in Tasmania related or caused by the same thing?

No. While affected devils and platypuses can suffer from similar external symptoms, such as ugly ulcers or lesions, the diseases are caused by completely different mechanisms and occur on different parts of the body. Diseased Tasmanian devils suffer mainly from facial tumours, while the lesions on diseased platypuses are generally around the tail, back or back legs.

DFTD is an infectious cancer where malignant growths or tumors are caused by abnormal and uncontrolled cell division. It is contagious and thought to be spread by infected devils biting other devils. There is currently no evidence that the disease has spread to other species of wildlife or domestic animals.

Mucormycosis (the disease affecting Tasmanian platypus populations) is caused by the fungus Mucor amphibiorum. Currently little is known about how the fungus is transferred between platypuses or how it is spread. DFTD has had a devastating effect on Tasmanian devil populations throughout the State in the 13 years since it was first detected. However in the 25 years since Mucormycosis disease was first detected in Tasmania we still don’t know what impact it is having on platypus populations, or how far it has spread.
These questions are being addressed in another research program within the Department. Read more about Mucormycosis and the platypus conservation program: Mucormycosis - Platypus Fungal Disease

Save the Tasmanian Devil newsletters

The Save The Tasmanian Devil Program issues quarterly newsletters

.

Our newsletters keep you informed about the progress being made in response to Devil Facial Tumour Disease.

See also on this website:
Remote Sensor Camera Trial
Tasmanian Devil Information Database

Further Information

Contact: Save the Tasmanian Devil Program

134 Macquarie Street
PO Box 44
HOBART TAS 7001
Phone: 03 6233 2006
Fax: 03 6233 3477
Email: DevilDisease.Enquiries@dpipwe.tas.gov.au

Save the Tasmanian Devil website: www.tassiedevil.com.au

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This page - http://www.dpipwe.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/JCOK-65X2Y6?open - was last published on 17 November 2009 by the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment. Questions concerning its content can be sent to DevilDisease Enquiries by using the feedback form, by mail to GPO Box 44, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 7001, or by telephone to 03 6233 2006.

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