Researchers in Australia are vaccinating wild koalas against chlamydia in an try to stop a sexually transmitted disease from wiping out the population.
A team of scientists intends to trap and vaccinate around 50 koalas within the Northern Rivers region of Latest South Wales as a part of a government-approved field test to thwart a disease that causes blindness, infertility and death in animals.
Chlamydia, together with habitat loss and automobile accidents, have put marsupials prone to extinction in lower than 30 years, in accordance with rating 2020 from the federal government of Latest South Wales. The Australian government has declared koalas to be an endangered species within the eastern regions of Latest South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory.
“This kills koalas because they change into so sick they cannot climb trees to get food or escape predators, and females can change into infertile,” University of the Sunshine Coast microbiologist Samuel Phillips he told the Associated Press.
The vaccination drive began in March after scientists first vaccinated several hundred koalas that were being rehabilitated for unrelated problems at wildlife rescue centers.
“We wish to evaluate what percentage of koalas we’d like to vaccinate to significantly reduce infection and disease,” said Phillips, who helped develop the single-use vaccine.
![A koala eats a gum leaf in a koala park in Sydney, Australia.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000010831426.jpg?w=1024)
To offer wild marsupials a likelihood, scientists search for them in trees and redirect them to cages as they descend.
Then veterinarians check that the koala is healthy and administer anesthesia and a vaccine. They keep the koalas for twenty-four hours to make certain they haven’t got unexpected uncomfortable side effects.
Vaccinated koalas are marked with a pink dye on their backs and released into the wild.
Efforts to vaccinate half of the Northern Rivers region’s population are expected to take about three months.
![Samuel Phillips takes a selfie in the lab preparing doses of UniSC Koala Chlamydia vaccine for wildlife vaccine trials at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Sippy Downs, Queensland, Australia.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000010831425.jpg?w=1024)
Unlike humans, chlamydia in koalas can’t be treated with antibiotics since the animals have microbes of their stomachs that neutralize the toxins in eucalyptus leaves, but in addition often neutralize the consequences of antibiotics, said Mathew Crowther, a conservation biologist on the University of Sydney. In consequence, scientists created a vaccine specifically for koalas to immunize them against an STD.
Scientists don’t understand how chlamydia got here from koalas, but they imagine they could have been infected by coming into contact with the feces of cattle that had the disease. The disease was then transmitted through sexual activity or passed from the koala mother to her babies.
![](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000010831429.jpg?w=1024)
One koala who had advanced chlamydia and was euthanized has cysts surrounding her ovaries and has been unable to digest food, in accordance with Smithsonian researcher Rebecca Johnson, who previously led the Koala Genome Consortium in Australia.
“She was obviously infertile and in pain,” Johnson said, calling the consequences of the disease heartbreaking.
The disease spread rapidly through the koala population.
In 2008, only 10% of koalas tested in northern South Wales tested positive for chlamydia. In line with Crowther, who has been monitoring the population for years, 80% have been infected.
“It was devastating – there may be very, very low fertility,” he said. “You’ll be able to hardly see the kids.”
With postal wires