Bivalve Transmissible Neoplasia

Clam leukemia is a transmissible cancer spreading through soft-shell clam populations in the Atlantic. Like DFTD and CTVT, the cancer cells themselves are the infectious agent - they survive in seawater and infect new hosts. Most remarkably, some clam cancers have 'jumped species', with cells from one bivalve species now causing cancer in entirely different species.

The cross-species transmission is unprecedented - cancer cells evolving to parasitize organisms they didn't originate from. The business parallel is predatory practices that evolve to exploit new markets: strategies developed to extract value from one sector adapting to attack entirely different industries. When exploitation capabilities become generalizable, no sector is safe.