| Newswatch |
 Cedric the immune devil injected with live DFTD cells Last year news broke of a captive-bred devil originating from west coast stock which displayed an immune response to dead DFTD cells. His name was Cedric. At last there was a glimmer of hope that some devils might survive through the sheer luck that their genetic makeup was sufficiently different from that of devil facial tumour disease cells. ABC now reports that Cedric, and his brother Clinky, have just been injected with live DFTD cells. Last year only Cedric showed an immune response. Researchers are expecting Cedric will be resistant to the disease, but that Clinky will succumb to it. So far neither devil has exhibited signs of DFTD but this may be attributable to the fact only a few cells were injected. Infection may take time. Scientists hope to find more devils with Cedric's genetic makeup so they can begin testing with injecting whole tumours. (As an aside, I wonder why Cedric didn't enter the breeding program instead of being tested with live DFTD.) Full article at ABC Note: Photo of Cedric from Telegraph.co.uk where it is attributed to the University of Tasmania
Posted by: admin on 30 Mar 2008 09:13 PM.
Updated by: admin on 31 Mar 2008 09:14 AM
|