Ten healthy joeys are proof that vaccines are good for koalas, too
Around 10 koala joeys have been born in the past year to wild vaccinated koalas – a breakthrough result for a pilot study that aims to protect them against the chlamydia epidemic that has been cutting a swathe through endangered populations in Queensland.
UQ researchers have questioned a koala rescue scheme (file photo)
Currumbin Wildlife Hospital and researchers from the Queensland University of Technology have been trialling the koala chlamydia vaccine on both male and female koalas for two years.
New figures from the trial, released Wednesday, show that in the past year, researchers have tracked 10 joeys born from wild populations on the southern Gold Coast where the disease, that can cause infertility and blindness, has been rife and causing the population to drop.
The new koala mothers in the Elanora Conservation Area that have given birth have all been vaccinated.
Currumbin Wildlife Hospital Senior Vet Michael Pyne said the vaccination trial involved tagging, physical tracking and re-capturing, checking and releasing the koalas over a period of five years to monitor the effectiveness of the vaccine.
“We are excited with the early success that this vaccine program is showing. Two years into the program, the results are very encouraging, with all vaccinated Elanora koalas remaining free of chlamydia,” Pyne said.
“The species is now considered endangered, and without programs like this, they still face the very real possibility of extinction.”
Koala chlamydia is a bacterial infection and is one of the leading causes of death for Australian koalas. If left untreated, chlamydia can cause infertility and permanent blindness.
As much as 48 per cent of the wild koala population is understood to suffer from the infection, with rates as high as 90 per cent in populations in some parts of the country.
Around 60 per cent of Currumbin Wildlife Hospital’s koala admissions are due to chlamydia. The hospital, one of the busiest wildlife hospitals in the world, treated and admitted more than 600 koalas in 2021.
“I guess the super exciting thing for us today is that we’ve got 25 koalas in this program so far and to date they’re all free of chlamydia, but more than that we’ve got 10 joeys in the pouches of the females,” Pyne said.
“It’s a huge plus for this program because it’s all about reproduction and more koalas, so we can start to turn around the decline in numbers.”
QUT’s Professor Kenneth Beagley said the potentially lifesaving chlamydia vaccine had been administered to more than 150 koalas that have been released back into the wild across south-east Queensland.
