A chlamydia vaccine has been approved for use on koalas, which scientists hope will stop the sexually-transmitted disease killing the endangered species.
The single-dose vaccine is ready to be used across Australia – in wildlife hospitals, clinics, and in the field.
Chlamydia accounts for as many as half of all wild koala deaths.
Both the male and female marsupials can contract the disease via mating or close contact, causing urinary tract infections, blindness, infertility, and often death.
Infected koalas can be treated with antibiotics, but this can prove equally fatal, as they risk killing the gut bacteria that allows them to eat eucalyptus leaves – their main source of food – which ultimately leads to starvation.
But after more than a decade of research, a team of scientists at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland hopes the injection will reduce deaths in the wild by at least 65%.
“It offers three levels of protection – reducing infection, preventing progression to clinical disease, and in some cases, reversing existing symptoms,” Professor Peter Timms, an expert in microbiology at the university, said.
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Koalas were classified as endangered in the Australian states of Queensland, New South Wales, and the Australian Capital Territory in 2022.
The national koala monitoring programme estimates only 95,000 to 238,000 are left in those areas, with a further 129,000 to 286,000 in the states of Victoria and South Australia.
In parts of Queensland and New South Wales, chlamydia infection rates have stayed at around 50% and have been as high as 70%.
The population is also threatened by habitat loss caused by climate change and bushfires, the World Wide Fund for Nature says.
As a result, the Australian government has invested £37m into saving them from extinction.
