“Producing a fence to fence out a disease is a difficult technical issue. It isn't just a matter of slinging up something like a rabbit-proof fence,” said Hamish McCallum, the senior scientist in charge of the Devil Facial Tumor Disease program.

Wombats digging under the fence is only one of the challenges to building the disease barrier.

But McCallum says some solution to the epidemic must be found soon or the wild population of the devil could become extinct within 20 years.

In a related development, scientists say they suffered a setback in their efforts to combat the spread of the facial cancer in another way.

It was hoped that offspring from a devil with a strong antibody response to the disease would be safe from infection.

But reports on Wednesday said the animal itself, named “Cedric,” had fallen ill from the disease.

"It was very deflating, very, very disappointing. But we move on, and we have learned a lot from him so far." Greg Woods of the University of Tasmania told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

In responding to the setback, McCallum told reporters: "From the very beginning of this program we have known that there would be no quick fixes for the devil — this is a complex disease which will take a complexity of science and sophisticated and targeted wildlife management strategies to tackle."

Photo: Tasmania Parks & Wildlife Service