Tasmanian Devil (26 page)

Official recognition of the potential role of toxins as triggers for DFTD followed:

A pilot trial is proposed in which statistically valid numbers of tissue samples from affected and unaffected devils will be selected and tested for the presence of a range of toxins. It is proposed that the 10 most commonly isolated toxins are then exposed to normal devil cell cultures in amounts similar to those found in affected devils and any changes in the cells noted. If there are positive effects of the toxins on the cell cultures then there is an indication that a much larger project is warranted and should be undertaken.
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From a peak of an estimated 150 000 devils in the mid-1990s, the state's numbers had dropped by at least a third. Menna Jones concluded that a reduction to 15 000 could make extinction in the wild irreversible. The call grew to isolate healthy devils on an offshore island. But that carried its own set of potential problems. Against this backdrop, the first major step in tackling the disease came with the arrangement of a specialists' workshop, held in Launceston on 14 October 2003. It was not before time.

The workshop got off to a controversial start. Despite widespread interest, the public was admitted only to the opening address by Environment Minister Green. Some participating scientists expressed surprise, wondering if the ban was intended to minimise potential negative political fallout. On the other hand, experts in deep discussion on a dilemma they knew little about could probably do without public attention, although interested scientists were also kept out and others had to indulge in manipulation to be invited. A media brief had to suffice for the public. It noted the key role of the devil in the state's ecology and that all sections of the community had a role to play. In a practical sense, this might mean notifying authorities of, say, a diseased roadkill devil; it was also surely a plea to those rural Tasmanians for whom devil-killing remained a sport or duty.

Some 55 invited specialists, local and interstate, attended the workshop. It was a high-powered and unique gathering. As an icon species the Tasmanian devil ranks with endangered wildlife such as the panda, Asian tiger and American bald eagle, yet the apparent suddenness of its extinction threat created an added urgency.

Introductory presentations were followed by a koala leukemia case study. A plenary session identified key issues, and afternoon sessions were devoted to pathology and epidemiology, population monitoring and mapping and management responses.

A paper on options for management included data on the potential for establishing populations on one or more of Tasmania's offshore islands. Selection criteria included size, a preference for public land, diverse habitat and suitable prey species, accessibility for monitoring, and an absence of vulner- able ground-nesting birds and small mammals. In Menna Jones' estimate, a minimum of 40 devils would be required to represent full genetic diversity, with a minimum of 3 square kilometres per animal, which ruled out many of the smaller islands. (Tasmania has 334 offshore islands.)

Quarantining healthy devils in this way may appear straightforward, but a range of complications arises in relocation, including lack of genetic diversity, potential failure of the animals to establish themselves, impacts on existing wildlife, management of the predator–prey ratio, and the fact that such a relocation could be irreversible and damage equally important conservation attributes of the islands.

A flowchart presented at the workshop indicated just how complicated the issue had become. This is reproduced on page 188.

Case by case disease studies were presented at the workshop in order to lead to a better understanding of devil cancers, as the first step in arriving at a clinical definition of DFTD, including this first ‘official' case from 1995:

History—A female Tasmanian Devil of unknown age was found at Greens Beach. Gross—very poor skin condition—hairless over much of surface, scabby, morocco leather-like patches, especially in the groin and flank. Subcutaneous lymph nodes enlarged and also scattered dermal and subcutaneous swellings. Necrotic reactionary lesion in the masseter muscle. The internal visceral organs appeared normal. Masses of cestodes (tapeworms) in the jejunum and moderate numbers in the ileum, plus there were ascarid-like nematodes mainly in the duodenal area. Histology— multifocal dermal leukosis with lymphosarcomatous infiltration of lymph nodes and in the periportal tissues of the liver and interstitially in the adrenal and also through skeletal muscle tissue. The lesion in the masseter muscle was due to heavy lymphosarcomatous infiltration of that muscle mass. This animal was affected by widespread lymphosarcomatous neoplasia. Diagnosis—Lymphosarcoma. Comment—There were occasional, but consistent findings of azurophilic intracytoplasmic material in some cells. Artefact or viral inclusions?
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The first gathering of specialists to combat DFTD took place in Launceston in October 2003. This flowchart gives some idea of the
complexities of the issue facing the 55 biologists, veterinary pathologists, marsupial carnivore experts and others who attended the workshop.
(Courtesy Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment)

Among the more disturbing findings to come out of the workshop were that the disease might not be diagnosed for another ten years, and that feral cats may already be rapidly filling the emptied devil niche. The very next day Burnie police retrieved a freshly dead fox from the Bass Highway near the seaside town's old hospital. It might have been placed there as part of the obnoxious game being played by those importing foxes into the state, but it was a reminder that not only cats might be a threat.

Another depressing outcome of the workshop, revealed through release of internal Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment (DPIWE) documents, under freedom of information legislation, appeared to confirm that government reaction had been too slow, too late and too modest, with the result that ‘a happy ending to this issue' appeared ‘very unlikely'.
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The consequences of a lack of long-term systematic monitoring of such an important animal were obvious.

The comments were seized open by the two opposition political parties as damning evidence in the wake of the altered Mooney memo. In parliament the Leader of the Opposition, Rene Hidding, accused Premier Jim Bacon of being caught flatfooted on the issue. Bacon hotly denied the charge. Later in the day, Bryan Green, the Labor Party Environment Minister, and Nick McKim, the Greens' Environment Spokesman, clashed:

Mr Green—
. . . So it was I who generated the interest in the devils, it was I who generated all of the work that has been done since that time [the memo] on Tasmanian devils.

Everything else that had been done had never formally come to the Government in any way, and that is the point.

And this is the point that you ought to understand, and not smugly smile over there and kick back as if you are the great expert.

Mr McKim—
I'm allowed to smile. Don't put words into my mouth; I've never claimed to be an expert on this. In fact I've said quite frankly that none of us is . . .

Mr Green—
Mr Deputy Speaker, what I can say is that the State Government is extremely serious about this issue. I do not think we could be any more definite about an issue that has confronted us, any more serious about making sure that we do everything we possibly can to protect the devil. It is true it is an icon, it is true we do not understand what the disease is, but it is also true that we are doing what we have to do to make sure that we are given the best opportunity to understand the disease. We have done that in a number of ways, but I think I should keep this in perspective.

When we received the first briefs on this, it was about lesions; it was not talking about a disease as such, it was just talking about lesions. It was not until later on that people started talking about this in the context of a disease—
Mr Booth
[Green]—Did you think they were marshmallows stuck on their face?

Mr Deputy Speaker—
Order. If you want to speak, please speak from your own seat.

Mr Green—
This is where these blokes really do stray outside the realm of decency when they talk about this—
Mr McKim—
What would a lesion be if it wasn't a disease?
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The vexed question of funding stayed at the forefront of the issue. An earlier state government application for federal funding through the Wildlife and Exotic Diseases Preparedness Program—resulting in just $7000, which is all the program had left in its budget—obliged Green to again defend his position. A week later, Jim Bacon announced that the government would make $1.8 million available, over four years, to combat the disease, a 450-fold increase over the existing $40 000.

Warner Bros., with its long association with animal stars, had a record of backing causes to protect vulnerable wildlife in the United States. Thus in 1999 it had teamed with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the City of New Orleans to create an Urban Treaty for Bird Conservation. This pilot program aimed to educate city dwellers in the importance of conserving migratory songbird populations, for many of which urban habitats are crucial. Tweety the canary was named Official Spokesbird.
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Warner Bros. had in fact been approached for help soon after the realisation that the disease was rampant, but its chief corporate communications officer, Barbara Brogliatti, had then firmly stated that, whatever else the company might contemplate, the use of the Taz image remained off limits. Now, however, came the newspaper scoop—with a feisty Taz superimposed over a pair of real devils, a rare legal commercial image—declaring:

Warner Bros. is in advanced talks with the State Government over a rescue package for Tasmania's virus-riddled devil population. The US-based entertainment giant . . . is planning to join the effort to help save the Tasmanian Devil . . . It is understood negotiations have reached an advanced but delicate stage and an announcement with more detail is expected . . . spokeswoman Barbara Brogliatti told international news agency Reuters last week: ‘We are in discussions with the folks in Tasmania to see what we might be able to do to help . . . Firstly, as human beings [concerned about] any endangered species and, secondly, it is our beloved Taz'.
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These discussions with Tourism Tasmania moved forward to a point where, by the end of the year, Warner Bros. designers had come up with a pair of prototypes for Taz soft toys, wearing caps and t-shirts bearing save-the-devil slogans.

Funding issues aside, areas of progress became apparent. Scientists concluded the disease appeared to result in a single type of tumour, a possible step forward in the task of identifying its cause. And the Nature Conservation Branch put in place a long-term monitoring program for devil populations. In addition to regular trapping, monitoring techniques now included microchipping to replace ear tattooing, and the use in remote locations of automatically-triggered cameras set up at feeding sites. Early tests returned high-quality photographs of diseased animals.

Mooney's team in the field used a portable surgery that allowed biopsies and the removal of small early cancers. The team liased regularly with veterinarians from the state's Animal Health Laboratories, and also passed its results to the government-funded Devil Disease Task Force, which itself had linked with the CSIRO, Taronga Zoo in Sydney and Murdoch University in Western Australia. The task force included a range of specialist wildlife experts.

Working in the field had its own difficulties. To begin with, handling grossly disfigured animals required an ability to cope with repeated exposure to suffering, a reality made tougher by the decision not to euthanase except in the most extreme cases, where an animal was on the verge of death. Diseased animals released with radio tracking collars provided valuable monitoring information. Others were lactating, with young denned somewhere. Set against this, fieldworkers had also to attempt to operate within the bounds of the
Animal Welfare Act
; a difficult balance to achieve, not least because the wording of the Act is very generalised.