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posted by martyb on Friday October 21 2016, @03:24AM   Printer-friendly
from the lucky-devils dept.

The ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) reports that University of Tasmania researchers have identified four Tasmanian devils which recovered, in the wild, from devil facial tumour disease, the transmissible facial cancers that are prevalent in the species. Another two recovered, but were afflicted again later.

Previously:
Tasmanian Devils are Developing Resistance to Transmissible Cancer


Original Submission

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Tasmanian Devils are Developing Resistance to Transmissible Cancer 19 comments

Although cancer rarely acts as an infectious disease, a recently emerged transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) is virtually 100% fatal. Devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) has swept across nearly the entire species' range, resulting in localized declines exceeding 90% and an overall species decline of more than 80% in less than 20 years.

Researchers have found that Tasmanian devils have developed some genetic resistance to the disease in just four to six generations.

Evolving resistance within so few generations is rare for vertebrates, says Beata Ujvari, an evolutionary ecologist at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, who was not invovled in the study. Australia's rabbit population quickly developed resistance to myxomatosis, a fatal viral infection. But it took 50–80 generations to do so.

The devil facial-tumour disease jumps from one Tasmanian devil to another when they bite each other during social interactions.

http://www.nature.com/news/tasmanian-devils-show-signs-of-resistance-to-devastating-facial-cancer-1.20508
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160830/ncomms12684/full/ncomms12684.html


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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 21 2016, @03:32AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 21 2016, @03:32AM (#417084)

    Better than face cancer is immunity to superbugs:

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/tasmanian-devil-milk-may-help-fight-against-superbugs/ [cbsnews.com]

    After all, tasmanian devils don't really care about how ugly their faces are. But superbugs, that's a problem for us too.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 21 2016, @03:47AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 21 2016, @03:47AM (#417089)

    did anyone consider giving them anti virals? since that is how this cancer is caused and it's only a species were talking about plus it might be nice if we new if it might work in case they are not the only ones and it jumps species like aids or ebola or swinn flu or chicken flu or or .. just a thought

    • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Friday October 21 2016, @03:56AM

      by butthurt (6141) on Friday October 21 2016, @03:56AM (#417093) Journal

      Devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) is an aggressive non-viral transmissible parasitic cancer among Tasmanian devils.

      --https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DFTD [wikipedia.org] (emphasis added)

      It's not viral; it's cancerous cells that spread from one individual to another. There are at least two cell lines: one from a female, and the other from a male.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 21 2016, @04:46AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 21 2016, @04:46AM (#417103)

    Finally, our own local anti-hero finds his calling! I am going to cry!

  • (Score: 2) by ledow on Friday October 21 2016, @04:48AM

    by ledow (5567) on Friday October 21 2016, @04:48AM (#417104) Homepage

    Wow.

    Species has "choice" between die out or develop a way to combat the thing killing them.

    Before the last of them is wiped out, some of them are found to be immune.

    Those are more likely to go onto breed thus (probably) making their offspring immune.

    I mean... THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE IN THE WHOLE OF EVOLUTION!!!!!!

    Or... this is perfectly normal and exactly what everyone was expecting to happen.

    Sure, it's by no means guaranteed and it'd be sad to lose the little fellas, but... come on. Billions of years of evolution and random chance tend to make things work after a while.

    Is anyone else honestly surprised by this?

    50 years time, if we hadn't interfered, that particular thing wouldn't be affecting them at all.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 21 2016, @05:02AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 21 2016, @05:02AM (#417111)

      You seem to be attributing some sort of intelligence to this mutation.
      If not, then you are making some sort of argument about luck being reliable.
      Either way, not a good look for you.

      • (Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Friday October 21 2016, @08:33AM

        by Scruffy Beard 2 (6030) on Friday October 21 2016, @08:33AM (#417160)

        To be fair, the more individuals involved, the more likely some of them will win the lottery.

        Reproductive success is how the flukes spread.

  • (Score: 2) by WalksOnDirt on Friday October 21 2016, @06:04AM

    by WalksOnDirt (5854) on Friday October 21 2016, @06:04AM (#417124) Journal

    If we end up getting some immune ones then that's fine. If not, we put as many uninfected ones into zoos as we can and let the wild ones die out. Then we reintroduce them back to the wild.

  • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Friday October 21 2016, @07:39PM

    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Friday October 21 2016, @07:39PM (#417381)

    Taz hate cancer! Taz hate cancer!

    --
    "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh