Saving the Devils is in the details: Tasmanian Devil facial tumor disease can be eliminated with interventions

Drawert, Brian; Matthew, Sean; Powell, Megan O.; Rumsey, Bryan

doi:10.1101/2022.04.03.486872

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…As Tasmania is an island state, targeting of devil facial tumours presents a potentially more tractable problem than rabies. This is supported by two independent analyses that recently suggested that an OBV could potentially eliminate DFTD from Tasmania (Lamp et al 2021;Drawert et al 2022). An OBV platform for DFT1 and DFT2 is in development (Flies et al 2020) but the success of an OBV will depend not only on the effectiveness of the vaccine but also the bait distribution system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 59%

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Evaluation of oral baits and distribution methods for Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii)

Dempsey

Pye

Gilbert

et al. 2022

Preprint

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ContextDiseases are increasingly contributing to wildlife population declines. Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) populations have locally declined by 82% largely due to the morbidity and mortality associated with two independent transmissible devil facial tumours (DFT1 and DFT2). Toxic baits are often used as a management tool for controlling vertebrate pest populations in Australia, but in other areas of the world oral baits are also used to deliver vaccines or pharmaceuticals to wildlife. Oral vaccine bait products have been distributed for more than 50 years at a landscape scale to protect wildlife from rabies virus and contributed to the elimination of fox rabies from more than ten European nations. An oral bait vaccine to protect against devil facial tumours has been proposed as a management tool to improve the population health, resiliency and fitness of wild Tasmanian devils.AimOur goal was to evaluate the potential use of edible baits as vehicles for vaccine delivery to Tasmanian devils.MethodWe tested placebo versions of baits that are already used in Australia.Key resultsCaptive devils consumed all types of placebo baits but exhibited a preference for ruminant- and fish-based baits. Captive devils also consumed inert capsules inserted into placebo baits. Bait fate trials in the field revealed that baits were generally removed within 24 hours. Tasmanian pademelons (Thylogale billardierii), brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula), and Eastern quolls (Dasyurus viverrinus) were the most common nontarget bait competitors at six private properties in southern Tasmania; wild devils removed approximately 5% of ground baits at these sites. We also evaluated an automated bait dispenser, which reduced nontarget uptake and resulted in over 50% of the baits being removed by devils.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that captive and wild devils will accept and consume placebo versions of commercial baits. Bait dispensers or modified baits or baiting strategies are needed to increase bait uptake by devils.ImplicationsBait dispensers can be used at a regional scale to deliver baits to Tasmanian devils. These could act as vehicles for preventive or therapeutic vaccines to mitigate the impacts of disease on devil populations.Short summaryThis study aimed to test oral baits as potential vaccine delivery vehicles for Tasmanian devils. Captive and wild devils consumed placebo versions of commercial baits used on mainland Australia. Abundant non-target species, such as brushtail possums, Tasmanian pademelons, and eastern quolls consumed most baits in the wild. Implementation of automated bait dispensers increased bait uptake by devils to over 50% at the same regional field sites.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 59%

“…This is supported by two independent analyses that recently suggested that an OBV could potentially eliminate DFTD from Tasmania (Lamp et al . 2021; Drawert et al . 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of oral baits and distribution methods for Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii)

Dempsey

Pye

Gilbert

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…Similarly, the growing adoption of cuttingedge technology like internet telephony and video conferencing has given businesses and society a number of chances to reduce commuting, hence reducing emissions. Additionally, growing e-banking and e-commerce usage is enabling internet transactions, which reduces need for physical transportation and thus lowers greenhouse gas emissions (Drawert et al, 2022). ICT is assisting in the provision of intelligent automated solutions in a number of areas, including electricity production, agriculture, and industry, in addition to reducing dependence on physical travel.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Technologies, Environmental Governance and Environmental Performance: Empirical Evidence from China

2024

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This research conducts an empirical analysis of the relationship between digital technologies, environmental governance (assessed through environmental taxes), and China's environmental performance from 1995 to 2020. Additionally, within the framework of the STIRPAT model, the impacts of GDP and urbanization on ecological footprints are examined. This study is distinguished by its innovative approach to evaluating environmental performance via ecological footprints and the application of the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model along with Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS), Canonical Cointegration Regression (CCR), and Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) as long-run estimators, methodologies not previously applied to this context in China. The findings indicate that digital technologies and environmental taxes contribute to a reduction in ecological footprints, while GDP and urbanization have an adverse effect, increasing ecological footprints. Post-estimation diagnostics confirm the absence of serial correlation and heteroskedasticity, and affirm the normal distribution of the disturbance terms. For a robustness check, the study further employs DOLS, FMOLS, and CCR methods, which corroborate the initial results regarding the beneficial impact of digital technologies and environmental governance on ecological footprints. Based on these findings, the study advises the Chinese government and policymakers to enact more effective environmental tax policies and leverage digital technologies to enhance environmental sustainability in China.

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“…The Tasmanian devil population has declined by 80% since the discovery of DFTD (Woods et al 2020). This decline has led to changes in the species' ecosystem as feral cat populations have increased and quoll populations have decreased (Drawert et al 2022). However, contrary to predictions, local extinction of devils has not occurred (Farquharson et al 2022), and a natural immune response has been observed in some individuals (Woods et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2020). This decline has led to changes in the species’ ecosystem as feral cat populations have increased and quoll populations have decreased (Drawert et al . 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated Tasmanian devil segmentation and devil facial tumour disease classification

Nurçin,

Şentürk,

Imanov

et al. 2023

Wildlife Res.

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Context Artificial intelligence algorithms are beneficial for automating the monitoring of threatened species. Devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) is an endemic disease threatening Australia’s Tasmanian devil. The disease is a cancer that can be transmitted from one devil to another during social interactions. Cameras and trapping techniques have been employed to monitor the spread of the disease in the wild. The use of cameras allows for more frequent monitoring of devils than does trapping, but differentiating wounds from tumours in images is challenging, and this requires time and expertise. Aim The purpose of this work is to develop a computer vision system to assist in the monitoring of DFTD spread. Method We propose a system that involves image segmentation, feature extraction, and classification steps. U-net architecture, global average pooling layer of pre-trained Resnet-18, and support vector machine (SVM) classifiers were employed for these purposes, respectively. In total, 1250 images of 961 healthy and 289 diseased (DFTD) devils were separated into training, validation, and testing sets. Results The proposed algorithm achieved 92.4% classification accuracy for the differentiation of healthy devils from those with DFTD. Conclusion The high classification accuracy means that our method can help field workers with monitoring devils. Implications The proposed approach will allow for more frequent analysis of devils while reducing the workload of field staff. Ultimately, this automation could be expanded to other species for simultaneous monitoring at shorter intervals to facilitate broadened ecological assessments.

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Saving the Devils is in the details: Tasmanian Devil facial tumor disease can be eliminated with interventions

Cited by 3 publications

References 31 publications

Evaluation of oral baits and distribution methods for Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii)

Evaluation of oral baits and distribution methods for Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii)

Digital Technologies, Environmental Governance and Environmental Performance: Empirical Evidence from China

Automated Tasmanian devil segmentation and devil facial tumour disease classification

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