Scientists Discover the First-Ever Contagious Cancer in Fish
Scientists have identified a contagious form of cancer affecting brown bullhead catfish in Lake Memphremagog, marking only the fourth known instance of transmissible cancer in animals. Genetic analysis revealed the tumors are genetically similar across different fish, confirming the infectious nature of the disease.
Why it matters
Understanding transmissible cancers is crucial for biological research and conservation efforts, as these rare phenomena can significantly impact wildlife populations.
A mysterious cluster of blackened skin lesions affecting catfish in New England turned out to have a stranger cause than anyone would have predicted: a contagious form of cancer.
Researchers in Vermont studied melanoma tumors collected from brown bullhead catfish ( Ameiurus nebulosus ) living in Lake Memphremagog. The tumors on different fish were genetically much more similar to each other than their hosts, they found, strongly pointing to the cancer’s infectious origin. It’s only the fourth ever kind of transmissible cancer discovered in animals, and there remain many questions about this cancer and others like it, the researchers say.
“Transmissible cancers are a puzzling biological phenomenon that are not expected to exist,” the researchers wrote in their paper, published Wednesday in Nature, “with the potential to devastate host populations.”
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