Australia approves first chlamydia vaccine for koalas ravaged by the disease

Australia has approved the first vaccine to protect its shrinking koala population against chlamydia, a disease that accounts for as much as half of deaths in the wild among the country's iconic marsupials.

Australia has approved the first vaccine to protect its shrinking koala population against chlamydia, a disease that accounts for as much as half of deaths in the wild among the country’s iconic marsupials.

Researchers spent over 10 years developing the single-dose vaccine, which Australia’s veterinary medicine regulator has approved for use in wildlife hospitals, veterinary clinics and in the field.

There are estimated to be between 224,000 and 524,000 koalas left in Australia, according to Australia’s national science agency, which cited numbers from the National Koala Monitoring Program. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the koala population has been cut in half in the past 20 years.

Since 2022 they have been listed as endangered in Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, where the monitoring program estimates the combined population is between 95,000 and 238,000.

Along with habitat loss, climate change and bushfires, a major reason for koalas’ vulnerability is chlamydia, a sexually transmitted infection also found in humans that can also cause infertility and blindness.