A vaccine to protect Australia's koalas against chlamydia has been approved for the first time, a development that scientists believe could stop the spread of the deadly disease that has ravaged populations of the beloved endangered animal.
Chlamydia, which also affects humans, accounts for up to half of all koala deaths in the wild.
"Some individual colonies are edging closer to local extinction every day," Peter Timms, professor of microbiology at the University of the Sunshine Coast said in a statement on Wednesday. His team spent more than a decade developing the single-dose vaccine.
Transmitted through direct contact such as mating and sometimes to offspring during birth, chlamydia can cause infertility and blindness in koalas as well as severe urinary tract infections where the marsupials end up so dehydrated that they can't climb trees to get their food.