Sir

Your News in Brief item 'Cancer forces Tasmanian devil onto endangered list' highlights the plight of this carnivorous marsupial (Sarcophilus harrisii), driven towards extinction by devil facial-tumour disease, which is contagious (Nature 453, 441; 2008). The animal will soon also be uplisted by the 2008 IUCN Red List from its category of Least Concern to Endangered.

Emerging disease has also had a sudden impact on the western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla), uplisted in 2007 from Endangered to Critically Endangered, primarily as a result of mortality (more than 90% in some remote areas) induced by Ebola virus (Nature 449, 127; 2007). Disease has caused a 33% decline in the gorilla population over 13–14 years and a 64% decline over 11 years in the devil population, and is set to continue. Such rapid, range-wide population crashes have also been documented in formerly widespread and common amphibian species affected by the pathogenic chytrid fungus (Nature 439, 161–167; 2006).

The multimillion-dollar Save the Tasmanian Devil programme was initiated by Tasmania's Department of Primary Industries and Water in 2003. By contrast, nascent efforts to vaccinate wild gorilla populations with newly developed vaccines against Ebola virus are meeting with resistance from some members of the conservation community, who fear negative impacts during the vaccine-testing process.

The lesson to be learned from each of these diseases is that, although aggressive management actions, such as vaccination, may negatively affect a handful of individuals, they are vital if we are to save entire species.