Devil facial tumour disease (transmissible cancer)
Cáncer facial transmisible del demonio de Tasmania
- Date
- descrito en 1996; origen clonal en 2006 · confidence high
- Place
- Mount William National Park, Tasmania, Australia
- Credited to
- Anne-Maree Pearse, Kate Swift and colleagues
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
In 1996 a fatal facial tumour was described in Tasmanian devils; in 2006 it was shown that the tumour cells are a clone transmitted from animal to animal by biting. It is one of the very few transmissible cancers known.
Canine transmissible venereal tumour was identified in 1876 and is the oldest known transmissible cancer; the devil's was the first described in marsupials.
What it led to
- knowledge of cancers that behave like parasites
- captive breeding and species conservation programmes
- a second transmissible facial cancer discovered in 2014