In Other Animals
Transmissible cancer, caused by a clone of malignant cells rather than a virus, is extremely rare. The only other known types are canine transmissible venereal tumour (CTVT), which is passed between dogs via sexual activity and has been known to science for about 100 years, and contagious reticulum cell sarcoma of the Syrian hamster, which can be transmitted from one Syrian hamster to another by means of the bite of the mosquito Aedes aegypti. CTVT mutes the expression of the immune response, whereas the Syrian hamster disease spreads due to lack of genetic diversity. The mutation of devil facial tumour disease may mean that it could spread to other related species, like the quoll.
Read more about this topic: Devil Facial Tumour Disease
Famous quotes containing the word animals:
“What distinguished man from animals was the human capacity for symbolic thought, the capacity which was inseparable from the development of language in which words were not mere signals, but signifiers of something other than themselves. Yet the first symbols were animals. What distinguished men from animals was born of their relationship with them.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)