The Tasmanian Devil and Devil Facial Tumour Disease
نویسنده
چکیده
The global extirpation of the world’s apex predator fauna is consistently highlighting their important functional role in preserving biodiversity and maintaining ecosystem resilience. Apex predator declines and extinctions are promoting more invasive and homogenised ecosystem states, linked with secondary species extinctions, changes to community composition, and redefined carnivore guilds. In taxonomically and geographically diverse ecosystems devoid of apex predators similar general patterns expressed in community dynamics are emerging, such as mesopredator release, yet the magnitude and significance of the effects are driven by their context. The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is the largest extant marsupial carnivore and is facing the real threat of disease induced extinction in the wild from a consistently fatal transmissible cancer, devil facial tumour disease (DFTD). The devil is now effectively the apex mammalian predator in Tasmanian ecosystems following the extinction of the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) but DFTD is threatening its ecological role in the environment. Since the disease arose in the early to mid 1990s devil populations have suffered declines in excess of 95% in long-term disease areas, and it has infected more that 75% of their current geographic range. Tasmania retains the most intact guild of marsupial carnivores in Australia and maintains healthy populations of many native mammal and bird species that are extinct or threatened on mainland Australia. The loss of Tasmanian devils over large tracts of Tasmania is of tremendous conservation concern for native biodiversity and community resilience.
منابع مشابه
Extensive population decline in the Tasmanian devil predates European settlement and devil facial tumour disease.
The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) was widespread in Australia during the Late Pleistocene but is now endemic to the island of Tasmania. Low genetic diversity combined with the spread of devil facial tumour disease have raised concerns for the species' long-term survival. Here, we investigate the origin of low genetic diversity by inferring the species' demographic history using tempora...
متن کاملThe Immunomodulatory Small Molecule Imiquimod Induces Apoptosis in Devil Facial Tumour Cell Lines
The survival of the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is threatened by devil facial tumour disease (DFTD). This transmissible cancer is usually fatal, and no successful treatments have been developed. In human studies, the small immunomodulatory molecule imiquimod is a successful immunotherapy, activating anti-tumour immunity via stimulation of toll-like receptor-7 (TLR7) signaling pathway...
متن کاملRegression of devil facial tumour disease following immunotherapy in immunised Tasmanian devils
Devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) is a transmissible cancer devastating the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) population. The cancer cell is the 'infectious' agent transmitted as an allograft by biting. Animals usually die within a few months with no evidence of antibody or immune cell responses against the DFTD allograft. This lack of anti-tumour immunity is attributed to an absence of c...
متن کاملTasmanian devil facial tumour disease: lessons for conservation biology.
Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease is an infectious cancer that threatens the largest surviving marsupial carnivore with extinction. After emerging in 1996, it has spread across most of the range of the species, leading to a population decline of more than 60%. This bizarre disease, in which the cancer cells themselves are the infective agent, illustrates some important general principles ab...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
عنوان ژورنال:
دوره شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2013