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Grisly examinations
THE horror of the mysterious disease killing Tasmanian devils still shocks scientist Clare Hawkins.
Dr Hawkins has been observing devils with Devil Facial Tumour Disease since March last year.
But the British-born biologist still finds it difficult to deal with the gruesome deformities caused by DFTD.
Wearing gloves and protective clothing, Dr Hawkins has to examine the diseased animals.
DFTD begins with fairly innocuous-looking lesions in a devil's mouth.
These grow into ugly bulbous cancers, which protrude from the neck and often invade the eye sockets, nasal passages and jaw.
Devils in the late stages of the disease can be blind and seriously disturbed, often dying because they cannot fend for themselves.
The time from lesions to death is three to six months.
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"The disease is incredibly constant and pretty horrible," Dr Hawkins said.
"It eats away at the bone occasionally and sometimes you'll be opening the mouth and you realise the jaw is no longer solid. That is the worst,
it's a dreadful, dreadful disease."
Dr Hawkins is part of a Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment team investigating DFTD.
The team thinks the disease is a new form of cancer never seen before in devils or any other animal.
DPIWE scientists at the Mt Pleasant laboratories in Launceston are working on a theory that DFTD is transmitted mechanically cell to cell when devils
bite.
Field biologists think DFTD started in a "rotten apple" devil in the state's North-East.
First reported in 1996, DFTD has spread west to Cradle Mountain and south of Hobart.
DFTD is thought to have killed tens of thousands of devils in its march across the island.
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This is of course disturbing enough in terms of its impact on the Tasmanian Devils, but the fact that this may be a new type of cancer not found
previously in any other animal is far more disturbing to me...
[edit on 19-10-2005 by loam]
