Weekly Article - Devil Facial Tumour Disease Can The Recovery Being?

So there has been some good news recently in the conservation world. A species which has been experiencing a rapid unstoppable decline in its populations might be about to turn a corner.

The Tasmanian devil have suffered over a 80% decline in it's population since the original outbreak of DFTD or Devil facial tumour disease. This is a type of contagious cancer which grows on the faces of devils and expands till the individual eventually dies through starvation or suffocation.

There has been a lot of work attempting to find a cure for this disease so as to prevent the extinction of the species and recently research believe a solution has been found thanks to a evolutionary response due to the selection pressures DFTD is applying to the devil populations.

Check out the study here!
http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12684

Check out a summary of the findings here!
https://www.researchgate.net/blog/post/tasmanian-devils-evolve-resistance-to-facial-cancers

Check out a video produced by SmarterEveryDay a year ago today about the disease here!

Thanks for reading!