Even before we Europeans arrived in Tasmania, there was a Devil in Paradise. Today we have Devils in Paradise dying of cancer. And yet the cliché descriptors for Tasmania are ‘the natural state’, ‘clean, green & clever’ and ‘disease-free’.

The plight of the Tasmanian Devil is worsening by the day. A unique cancer is spreading like a contagion and has now consumed over 50% of the estimated 130,000 devils in less than a decade. Although not proven, the facial cancer disease appears to be transferring from devil to devil through direct contact by biting. In a matter of months the cancer is invariably fatal and ‘attack rates’ recorded in some populations is 100% – that is, all animals have died.

Field surveys show that the disease covers well over 65% of the State with wildlife biologist, Nick Mooney (Australian Nature Summer 2004/05) saying that ‘it’s hard to imagine the disease will not saturate the State sooner rather than later’.

This aggressive, apparently transmissible cancer is without precedent in the world. As Tasmanian cancer specialist, Professor Ray Loewenthal has suggested, there is nothing to compare with this cancer in humans.
This is one of the most important unsolved diseases in the world. ‘You may think that it’s just a state issue, but the Tasmanian Devil is a national icon. The world community is watching to see how Tasmanian manages this situation’, Wildlife Veterinarian and Co-ordinator of the Australian Wildlife Heath Network, Dr Rupert Woods said.

I have been puzzled at the on again-off again surges of government-generated information cast into the media on this very important disease mystery.

This policy decision devalues the Devil as a species

As a wildlife veterinarian and an individual who has contributed expertise the disease investigation I have been critical of the way the Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) has essentially been stage-managing at a political level with tight control on both the access to and the release of information. This policy decision devalues the Devil as a species and diminishes the community contribution to our island’s unique biodiversity.

Epidemics of disease and especially new and unusual diseases are highly topical. Readers might recall the worldwide media coverage given to Mad Cow Disease (BSE), Foot and Mouth Disease, SARS and Bird Flu. Governments generally don’t like the adverse connotations of disease be it in animals or, God-forbid, in humans! Attempts to play down, minimise and cover up the facts are commonplace. Without the attention of international health bodies like the World Health Organisation and the World Animal Health Body (OIE), national governments’ first response to disease is generally to play down the significance and in the worse cases deny it altogether. In various countries BSE, SARS and Bird Flu outbreaks were all initially met with public denials and then publicly stage-managed with misinformation. This has been the pattern of behaviour.

For decades Tasmania, the island state has portrayed itself as the last refuge for many unique marsupials no longer present on the Australian continent. Yet now Tasmania looks to its offshore islands for its own last refuge for the beleaguered Devil. What is going on?

Imagine if this cancer had killed 50% of the Tasmanian human population in a little over five years. This is a comparison that might be worth contemplating. A human malady of those proportions would be comparable to the Black Death in the middle ages in Europe. It would dwarf the death rates due to variant Creutzfeld -Jakob disease (Mad Cow Disease in humans) and deaths from SARS in 2002. Only the pandemic of HIV/AIDS and the potential impact of a virulent strain of human influenza would be greater. World Health Organisation would be demanding daily updates from Australian and Tasmanian health authorities. Tasmania would be literally on the map. The world’s leading epidemiologists, disease modellers and bio-medical researchers would be directly contributing and involved. International cancer researchers would be applying their collective talents and energies to understanding all aspects of this unique cancer. A common compassion for our fellows would accelerate the effort. Indeed the research efforts might have ground-breaking implications for other cancer research.

For decades Tasmania, the island state has portrayed itself as the last refuge for many unique marsupials no longer present on the Australian continent. Yet now Tasmania looks to its offshore islands for its own last refuge for the beleaguered Devil. What is going on?

It is nearly 15 months since a State government sponsored workshop on DFTD, a workshop where the media was excluded from attendance. Such an important disease process and such an unusual cancer and yet I’m not aware of a single publication describing any aspects of this unique cancer appearing in any national or international peer-reviewed science journal. Why this hesitancy?

This is only Tasmania and after all it is only the Devil!

Reporting on new diseases is usually the hottest of hot topics for researchers to commit to press. Even the early observational material and qualitative descriptions are useful because they communicate to all scientific peers and build co-operation.

But the reality it is this is only Tasmania and after all it is only the Devil!

Even the Commonwealth government initially declined to assist with funding the DFTD because of the lack of a detailed ‘case definition’. It is still awaited. Even requests to formally provide regular situation reports to the Australian Wildlife Health Network have been resisted. It beggars belief that a disease process as unique as this, one that has no counterpart anywhere in the world, a cancer that is transferring between animals like a highly infectious contagion is given such paltry attention.

Regrettably, and to Tasmania’s eternal shame, the full import of this significant wildlife epidemic is being diminished into an under-resourced, highly controlled political exercise

On 20 May 2004, a packed meeting at the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery was told that the State was preparing the documentation to nominate the Tasmanian Devil as a threatened species under the State Threatened Species Protection Act 1995. And yet just this week DPIWE dismissed calls from the State Opposition parties to nominate the species for listing. And now the Government has decided to deploy containment lines across peninsulas and dispatch devils to island refuges.

But which devils are free of the disease and which are cancerous (or pre-cancerous)? To date there is no way to tell with certainty, because there is no magic test.

Without an accurate diagnostic test for ‘the disease’, without any scientific experimental work to show how ‘the disease’ is being transmitted between animals, without evidence on an external causal agent (like an exogenous or endogenous oncovirus) being detected, and without ruling in or out any genetic or environmental factor, ‘the disease’ remains an unsolved mystery.

Maria Island National Park is being considered as a destination for ‘healthy’ devils. This is the island national park that was set aside as a potential refuge for any thylacines caught in Tasmania. Disastrously for the island ecology, Tasmania’s largest marsupial herbivore, the Forester Kangaroo was placed on Maria Island in late 1960s along with a number of other wildlife species. Initially Foresters were placed in a purpose-built enclosure, until they got out! Today the NPWS needs to regularly cull Foresters to reduce their impact on the environment. Perhaps introducing the carnivorous devil to Maria is a simplistic fix for previous follies.

What has Tasmania learnt of the impacts of predators?

Anyway what has Tasmania learnt of the impacts of predators on the island? Much time and effort has been spent on eradicating feral cats from Macquarie Island because of its effects on this fragile sub-Antarctic island. Devils were transferred from Tasmania to Clarke and Badger islands in the Furneaux Group. And now the Devil Facial Tumour Disease has turned up on Badger Island. Even Bruny Island may have a resident devil population. Who is healthy and who is pre-cancerous?

Regrettably, and to Tasmania’s eternal shame, the full import of this significant wildlife epidemic is being diminished into an under-resourced, highly controlled political exercise. Is this history repeating itself yet again? Tasmanian history chronicles its first people dying through introduced disease, persecution by colonisers and then island banishment? The thylacine exterminated, what is to be the fate of the next largest marsupial carnivore?

International and national scientific recognition and effort must be brought to bear in regard to this important disease process. In the absence of a structured epidemiological assessment and an independent and authoritative review of progress to date, it is quite legitimate for the scientific community and the broader community to be questioning the program.

The history of disease investigation shows that the politics will try to control and cover up what they do not understand or fear. If scientists are compromised and controlled by their political masters then this island will continue to lose its precious natural resources. It will diminish this island by every measure and it diminishes us all.

David Obendorf “lives in West Hobart. He is a veterinarian specialising in study of animal disease. He came to Tasmania in the early 1980’s and has a special interest in diseases of wildlife. In 1994 he was appointed to the Scientific Advisory Committee of the World Animal Health Body – the Office of International Epizootics – in recognition of his wild disease expertise.

After a 17-year career with the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industry Water & Environment, David resigned having publicly exposed the consequences of restructuring and downsizing the State’s animal health capabilities. In 2002, in the wake of the Foot & Mouth Disease outbreak in Europe, the then Minister for Primary Industries, Water & Environment David Llewellyn commissioned David to prepare a comprehensive report to government on repairing the structural and operational deficiencies that would give Tasmania greater confidence in the face of a serious exotic animal disease emergency. The report was accepted within three months and Minister Llewellyn stated that all 35 recommendations would be implemented.

His current interest is in protecting the Social, Economic and Environmental values of his island state through the development of a workable Biosecurity Framework supported by legislation. Currently David is involved in survey of Tasmanian wetlands for another new disease, this time in our frogs.”

Also:
Devils face a human blitzkrieg

For the major debate, go to COMMENTS on:
Chemical fears. The Devil Disease

Earlier:
Devil Rescue, The Mercury