EnglishLady
Veteran Expediter
BBC News Jan 1
Scientists admit they may never find a cure for a disease which is threatening to wipe out an iconic Australian species
Up to 80% of all Tasmanian devils have been lost in the past decade and millions of pounds is being spent to ensure they do not become extinct.
In 1996, the carnivorous marsupials began developing an unusual cancer called Devil Facial Tumour disease.
It attacks the mouth and spreads across the face; it is a rare contagious cancer, and is exacerbated because devils bite each other on the face in the wild.
The disease spread rapidly and threatened to destroy the entire wild population.
A decade of research has failed to produce a workable vaccine, because the disease has now mutated into 13 different strains.
So devils are being bred in captivity as an insurance policy in case they disappear from the natural habitats.
David Schapp is the senior keeper at one of the Tasmanian breeding facilities.
He told Sky News: "The disease itself is a living organism and it wants to stay alive and it fights to stay alive.
"So when it meets devils that show some form of resistance to it, the disease evolves and changes so it gets to live and continue."
They are investigating whether healthy animals could be relocated to an island to protect them from the disease, but are worried about interfering with the local ecology.
Mr Schapp added: "Probably the most bittersweet scenario for devils would be they go extinct in the wild, and when they do, the disease goes extinct with them.
"And that would then give us the ability to re-release healthy devils back into their natural habitat again."
There have been some encouraging signs for those who hope the devils will develop their own immunity the disease.
For the past four years Chilean researcher Rodrigo Hamede has been testing devils in a remote part of north-west Tasmania and has been surprised to find that, unlike other parts of the island, they have survived.
It could be because they are cut off from other diseased populations or because they have a minute genetic difference.
To try to find the answer, he has trapped hundreds of the animals and microchipped them so their progress can be followed.
But he is not optimistic that his research will help produce a cure for the cancer.
He said: "I always think of the amount of time and money and research that we have put to try to cure human cancer and we haven't found a solution yet.
"It's not impossible, but at least in the short term it doesn't look possible to find a cure that tomorrow we can say 'OK, no problems, we found a cure, we're going to eradicate this disease'."
And he does not believe that reintroducing animals bred into captivity will be easy.
Mr Hamede said: "It's really hard to bring a captive animal into the wild so they can survive and they can breed and they can build up a sustainable viable population."
But the insurance population is the best chance the devils have of surviving in the long term.
A creature which was once hunted because farmers thought it was a pest, has now been listed as an endangered species and millions of pounds has been spent trying to save the species.
Nearly a century ago the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, was hunted to extinction.
And there is a determination not to see another of the island's iconic species lost forever, or surviving only in zoos and breeding centres
Scientists admit they may never find a cure for a disease which is threatening to wipe out an iconic Australian species
Up to 80% of all Tasmanian devils have been lost in the past decade and millions of pounds is being spent to ensure they do not become extinct.
In 1996, the carnivorous marsupials began developing an unusual cancer called Devil Facial Tumour disease.
It attacks the mouth and spreads across the face; it is a rare contagious cancer, and is exacerbated because devils bite each other on the face in the wild.
The disease spread rapidly and threatened to destroy the entire wild population.
A decade of research has failed to produce a workable vaccine, because the disease has now mutated into 13 different strains.
So devils are being bred in captivity as an insurance policy in case they disappear from the natural habitats.
David Schapp is the senior keeper at one of the Tasmanian breeding facilities.
He told Sky News: "The disease itself is a living organism and it wants to stay alive and it fights to stay alive.
"So when it meets devils that show some form of resistance to it, the disease evolves and changes so it gets to live and continue."
They are investigating whether healthy animals could be relocated to an island to protect them from the disease, but are worried about interfering with the local ecology.
Mr Schapp added: "Probably the most bittersweet scenario for devils would be they go extinct in the wild, and when they do, the disease goes extinct with them.
"And that would then give us the ability to re-release healthy devils back into their natural habitat again."
There have been some encouraging signs for those who hope the devils will develop their own immunity the disease.
For the past four years Chilean researcher Rodrigo Hamede has been testing devils in a remote part of north-west Tasmania and has been surprised to find that, unlike other parts of the island, they have survived.
It could be because they are cut off from other diseased populations or because they have a minute genetic difference.
To try to find the answer, he has trapped hundreds of the animals and microchipped them so their progress can be followed.
But he is not optimistic that his research will help produce a cure for the cancer.
He said: "I always think of the amount of time and money and research that we have put to try to cure human cancer and we haven't found a solution yet.
"It's not impossible, but at least in the short term it doesn't look possible to find a cure that tomorrow we can say 'OK, no problems, we found a cure, we're going to eradicate this disease'."
And he does not believe that reintroducing animals bred into captivity will be easy.
Mr Hamede said: "It's really hard to bring a captive animal into the wild so they can survive and they can breed and they can build up a sustainable viable population."
But the insurance population is the best chance the devils have of surviving in the long term.
A creature which was once hunted because farmers thought it was a pest, has now been listed as an endangered species and millions of pounds has been spent trying to save the species.
Nearly a century ago the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, was hunted to extinction.
And there is a determination not to see another of the island's iconic species lost forever, or surviving only in zoos and breeding centres