This international export of devils (to Denmark) has totally leapfrogged the initial intention of program to get insurance populations of disease-free devils into top-class zoos in mainland Australia (e.g. Taronga, Melbourne Zoo and Healesville Sanctuary) for captive breeding purposes.
I believe the Denmark quartet are from two breedings of captive-bred devils from Trowunna Wildlife Park at Mole Creek. They go to a world famous zoo with very good quarantine standards.
The precautionary principle is at work here. These export devils ‘should’ be disease-free but there is still some uncertainty. The only devils that I am aware of that have developed DFT in captivity were ones trapped from infected populations and held by the Department; no devils from wildlife parks are known have developed this fatal cancer. But there are reports of free-ranging devils with DFT from around Mole Creek and Trowunna Park.
This international export of devils (to Denmark) has totally leapfrogged the initial intention of program to get insurance populations of disease-free devils into top-class zoos in mainland Australia (e.g. Taronga, Melbourne Zoo and Healesville Sanctuary) for captive breeding purposes.
We still don’t know what is the incubation period for this disease — ie, the time from first exposure to first visible signs of cancer.
Because we don’t know what causes this disease, there is no test to determine if a devil is incubating “the disease” – i.e. a screening test for devils to see if they carry a particular marker protein, a specific antibody or genomic fingerprint related to this cancer.
We wish them well and may ‘the force’ be with them to remain free of this fatal infectious cancer.
Earlier on TT: Here
