SYDNEY — Koalas have been given a new chance at survival. Australian regulators this week approved the first vaccine to combat chlamydia in the marsupials, a disease that has devastated populations along the country’s east coast.
The green light marks the culmination of more than a decade of trials led by scientists at the University of the Sunshine Coast. The single-dose jab, now cleared for use nationwide, is expected to ease one of the gravest threats facing the species.
“Chlamydia is driving wild koalas towards extinction, especially in southeast Queensland and New South Wales,” said Professor Peter Timms, who headed the research team. Infection rates, he noted, often hover around 50 per cent and in some colonies climb as high as 70 per cent.
The bacterial disease is far from benign. It can cause blindness, infertility, bladder infections and, in many cases, death. Until now, antibiotics were the only option. But treatment disrupted the animals’ digestion — heavily reliant on eucalyptus leaves — and failed to stop reinfection.
Field trials of the new vaccine delivered striking results. Researchers say it cut deaths in wild populations by at least 65 per cent and sharply reduced the risk of young koalas developing the illness once they reached breeding age.
First observed in the animals about half a century ago, chlamydia has steadily compounded other threats to the species, from habitat loss to climate change. Expanding cities, land clearance and disease have pushed the koala onto Australia’s endangered list along much of the east coast.
Official estimates suggest as few as 95,000 remain in the wild across Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Populations in Victoria and South Australia may number higher — up to 286,000 — but they too are under pressure.
Australia is now grappling with the sobering reality of being the world leader in mammal extinctions, with about 100 native species lost over the past century. The government last week halted logging along a major stretch of the eastern seaboard in an effort to create safer habitat for koalas.
Conservationists say the vaccine is not a silver bullet. But they hope it will buy time for a creature that has become a national symbol — and a reminder of what is at stake if action comes too late.
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