It was one of the most iconic photos to come out of the recent royal tour — but it masks a tragic secret with potentially devastating consequences. Harry and Meghan meeting a koala last year. Every member of the royal family who has come to our shores has taken the obligatory souvenir snap with a cuddly koala and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were no different, sidling up to a prime specimen at Taronga Zoo last October. Harry gave the creature a little pat, but Meghan carefully abstained. Koala chlamydia — a sexually transmitted disease with symptoms ranging from infertility and blindness to excruciating urinary tract infections and kidney failure — is now at epidemic levels, with some wild populations in Queensland having a per cent infection rate. How do you treat it?
Chlamydia has infected nearly every koala population, threatening the safety of the entire species. Now, there may only be one place on Earth where koalas are safe from the disease: Kangaroo Island in Australia. While Northern Australia koalas have been hit hard by chlamydia, researchers thought that the two largest populations in Southern Australia—Kangaroo Island and the mainland Mount Lofty Ranges MLR —appeared less affected. If really healthy, these populations could provide hope for the future of the koala species. To test that theory, researchers from the University of Adelaide caught koalas from Southern Australia and swabbed them, looking for DNA from Chlamydia pecorum bacteria. To be sure, the researchers analyzed historic data from over 13, koalas from Kangaroo Island over a year period, finding no signs of chlamydia. In the MLR population, though, the chlamydia bacteria was still common.
The koala has been listed as a vulnerable species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature IUCN since and it is estimated that there are only , left in the wild today. Lead researcher Dr Faye Wedrowicz told BuzzFeed News that her team decided to look at koalas in the region because they are promising to the future of the species in Australia. And no, the strain of chlamydia that infects koalas is not the same that infects humans but it is sexually transmitted in the same way. Genetic evidence from the chlamydia bacteria suggests that koalas were infected by the disease through transmission from livestock specifically sheep.
Scientists are looking at a number of ways to push back against the chlamydia epidemic. Australia ‘s iconic koala has a problem that keeps boomeranging back. They found high levels of genetic diversity.