Editing Tasmanian devil (section)

===Devil facial tumour disease===
{{Main|Devil facial tumour disease}}
[[File:Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease.png|thumb|Devil facial tumour disease causes tumours to form in and around the mouth, interfering with feeding and eventually leading to death by starvation.|alt=A black devil with several pink-red coloured tumours growing on many parts of its body. The two largest are one covering where its right eye is, and another below the left eye. The right eye is no longer visible and both of these are around one-third the size of a normal devil face. It is lying on a green fabric.]]
First seen in 1996 in Mount William in northeastern Tasmania, [[devil facial tumour disease]] (DFTD) has ravaged Tasmania's wild devils, and estimates of the impact range from 20% to as much as an 80% decline in the devil population, with over 65% of the state affected. The state's west coast area and far north-west are the only places where devils are tumour free.<ref name=Deakin2012/><ref name=DFTDUpdateJune20005>{{cite web|publisher=Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment |date=June 2005 |url=http://www.dpiwe.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/Attachments/LBUN-6D73V5/$FILE/Tas_devil_update_June2005.pdf |title=Devil Facial Tumour Disease Update |access-date=30 September 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907075720/http://www.dpiwe.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/Attachments/LBUN-6D73V5/%24FILE/Tas_devil_update_June2005.pdf |archive-date=7 September 2008 }}</ref><ref name=DPIWEDMS2005>{{cite web|publisher=Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment |date=February 2005 |url=http://www.dpiwe.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/Attachments/LBUN-6996MH/$FILE/DFTD_DMS_Feb05a.pdf |title=Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) Disease Management Strategy |access-date=30 September 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907075712/http://www.dpiwe.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/Attachments/LBUN-6996MH/%24FILE/DFTD_DMS_Feb05a.pdf |archive-date=7 September 2008 }}</ref> Individual devils die within months of infection.<ref name=DPIWEweb3>{{cite web|publisher=Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment |url=http://www.dpiwe.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/LBUN-5QF86G?open |title=Devil Facial Tumour Disease |access-date=30 September 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050921014142/http://www.dpiwe.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/LBUN-5QF86G?open |archive-date=21 September 2005 }}</ref> The disease is an example of [[transmissible cancer]], which means that it is contagious and passed from one animal to another.<ref name=shea>{{cite news|author=Shea, N.|title=Wildlife: Devils in danger|work=National Geographic|date=November 2006}}</ref> This tumour is able to pass between hosts without inducing a response from the host's immune system.<ref name="Siddle 16221–16226">{{Cite journal|last1=Siddle|first1=Hannah V.|last2=Kreiss|first2=Alexandre|last3=Eldridge|first3=Mark D. B.|last4=Noonan|first4=Erin|last5=Clarke|first5=Candice J.|last6=Pyecroft|first6=Stephen|last7=Woods|first7=Gregory M.|last8=Belov|first8=Katherine|date=2007-10-09|title=Transmission of a fatal clonal tumor by biting occurs due to depleted MHC diversity in a threatened carnivorous marsupial|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|language=en|volume=104|issue=41|pages=16221–16226|doi=10.1073/pnas.0704580104|issn=0027-8424|pmc=1999395|pmid=17911263|doi-access=free}}</ref> Dominant devils who engage in more biting behaviour are more exposed to the disease.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wells |first1=Konstans |last2=Hamede |first2=Rodrigo |last3=Kerlin |first3=Douglas |last4=Storfer |first4=Andrew |last5=Hohenlohe |first5=Paul |last6=Jones |first6=Menna |last7=McCallum |first7=Hamish |title=Infection of the fittest: devil facial tumour disease has greatest effect on individuals with highest reproductive output |journal=Ecology Letters |date=2017 |volume=20 |issue=6 |pages=770–778 |doi=10.1111/ele.12776 |pmid=28489304 |pmc=6759051 |bibcode=2017EcolL..20..770W |url=https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa45075 }}</ref>

Wild Tasmanian devil populations are being monitored to track the spread of the disease and to identify changes in disease prevalence. Field monitoring involves trapping devils within a defined area to check for the presence of the disease and determine the number of affected animals. The same area is visited repeatedly to characterise the spread of the disease over time. So far, it has been established that the short-term effects of the disease in an area can be severe. Long-term monitoring at replicated sites will be essential to assess whether these effects remain, or whether populations can recover.<ref name=DPIWEDMS2005/> Field workers are also testing the effectiveness of disease suppression by trapping and removing diseased devils. It is hoped that the removal of diseased devils from wild populations should decrease disease prevalence and allow more devils to survive beyond their juvenile years and breed.<ref name=DPIWEDMS2005/> In March 2017, scientists at the University of Tasmania presented an apparent first report of having successfully treated Tasmanian devils with the disease. Live cancer cells that were treated with [[IFN-γ]] to restore [[MHC-I]] expression, were injected into the infected devils to stimulate their immune system to recognise and fight the disease.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Tovar C, Pye RJ, Kreiss A, Cheng Y, Brown GK, Darby J, Malley RC, Siddle HV, Skjødt K, Kaufman J, Silva A, Baz Morelli A, Papenfuss AT, Corcoran LM, Murphy JM, Pearse MJ, Belov K, Lyons AB, Woods GM |display-authors=6 |title=Regression of devil facial tumour disease following immunotherapy in immunised Tasmanian devils |journal=Scientific Reports |volume=7 |pages=43827 |date=March 2017 |pmid=28276463 |pmc=5343465 |doi=10.1038/srep43827|bibcode=2017NatSR...743827T }}</ref> In 2020 it was reported that one of the last DFTD-free wild population of Tasmanian devils was suffering from inbreeding depression and has undergone a significant decline in reproductive success in recent years.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Gooley | first1 = RM | last2 = Hogg | first2 = CJ | last3 = Fox | first3 = S | last4 = Pemberton | first4 = D | last5 = Belov | first5 = K | last6 = Grueber | first6 = CE | year = 2020 | title = Inbreeding depression in one of the last DFTD-free wild populations of Tasmanian devils | journal = PeerJ | volume = 8 | issue = | page = e9220 | doi = 10.7717/peerj.9220 | doi-access = free | pmid = 32587794 | pmc = 7304431 }}</ref>