Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease: lessons for conservation biology

Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease is an infectious cancer that threatens the largest surviving marsupial carnivore with extinction. After emerging in 1996, it has spread across most of the range of the species, leading to a population decline of more than 60%. This bizarre disease, in which the cancer cells themselves are the infective agent, illustrates some important general principles about disease and conservation biology, including the threat posed by loss of genetic diversity and the potential of pathogens with frequency-dependent transmission to cause extinction.