Pesquisador da Austrália ministra palestra no Inpa: "Sympathy for the devil: Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease"

Palestrante: Prof Hamish McCallum - Griffith University

 

Sympathy for the devil: Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease

 

The largest surviving marsupial carnivore, the Tasmanian devil, is threatened with extinction by a very unusual infectious cancer, Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease. The infectious agent is the tumour cell itself, transferred between animals by biting, which occurs commonly in social interactions, particularly during the mating season. Tasmanian Devil populations have very low genetic diversity, which enables this mode of transmission. Diversity is so low that recipient devils do not recognise tumour cells from another individual as "nonself". In this talk, I describe the effect that the disease is having on the population and discuss potential controls strategies. I emphasise the role of modelling in understanding the problem and in evaluating the feasibility of alternative management strategies. Whilst this is a highly unusual host parasite interaction, this problem has a number of implications for conservation biology in general, especially in the context of loss of genetic diversity in many populations.

 

Data: 01/11/2012

 

Horário: 17hs

 

Local: Auditório do BADPI - INPA/Campus II