Primary Industries and Water Minister, David Llewellyn said on 19 March 2008 that independent assessments of toxicological data from healthy devils and devils suffering from Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease found that a chemical cause of the disease is unlikely.
The two reports also indicated that although levels of dioxin and other chemicals were detected in devil tissues, they were at levels to be expected for a species at the top of the food chain, such as the Tasmanian devil.None of the chemicals measured were at significantly different levels in diseased and healthy animals and there is no evidence that any of the chemicals are linked to DFTD.
These assessments were undertaken as one part of the research into possible causes of the disease and simply help guide ongoing investigations in this field.The two assessments had been undertaken by Dr Tony Ross, a specialist veterinary pathologist with a strong background in toxicology and Professor Michael Moore, the Director of the National Research Centre for Environmental Toxicology.
In his report, Dr Tony Ross said a small number of chemicals may warrant further investigation including arsenic and some of the brominated diphenyl ethers, and although the results will be of interest to some scientists, they do not show a link between chemicals and DFTD.
Principal Research Scientist with the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program Hamish McCallum said that there would be further discussions with scientific staff involved in the project, and the independent toxicologists to identify any other areas that may need further examination in relation to the disease.
Full copies of the reports are available at www.tassiedevil.com.au .
