Peter Timms is trialling a Chlamydia vaccine for koalas.
Credit: QUT
SYDNEY: A Chlamydia vaccine developed in 2008 has been trialled on koalas in Queensland, with results showing improvements in the health of affected koalas as well as the protection of healthy individuals.
Koalas with Chlamydia suffer from infertility, urinary tract infection and blindness. In a single grouping of koalas, up to 80% of them can be affected – putting the population at risk of becoming endangered. In one population of koalas, located in South East Queensland, the population has decreased by about 60% in ten years – in large part due to the spread of Chlamydia.
Peter Timms from the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, who was leading the vaccination project, said that the disease was as devastating to the population as habitat destruction and human impact, but with this vaccine it will be much easier to control.
“We wanted the make sure the vaccine didn’t make the disease any worse,” said Timms, “[There was] good evidence of good antibody response and cellular immune response to the initial vaccine.”
Koala Chlamydia vaccine response
Chlamydia brings on a slow death, mostly through starvation as the koalas’ weakened bodies and affected eyesight make it hard for them to seek food. It also causes cysts in the female koalas, not only making them infertile, but also causing them to waste away, losing all muscle development in their bodies.
Eighteen healthy koalas from the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary were given the Chlamydia vaccination in the first trials, to ensure the vaccine didn’t have the adverse affects and accidentally develop the disease. Those that were vaccinated were tested again, one year on, and the results were encouraging.
Recently, the team finished a second koala Chlamydia vaccine trial on already-infected koalas, at the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital in Beerwah, Queensland. There was no evidence of any bad vaccine response, according to Timms.
Timms and his team are planning a major study in the next 18 months that will vaccinate more koalas already inflicted with the disease. Initially, he said, only captive koalas will be vaccinated, as well as any wild koalas brought into medical centres by people who find them injured on the side of the road. “We have longer term plans to see if we can get the vaccine out widely,” he said, which includes reaching as many wild koalas as possible.
