Chlamydia and cars threaten Australian koalas
Expanding cities, land clearance and the spread of chlamydia in particular are devastating the populations of one of Australia's most iconic animals. But scientists are hopeful:"The chlamydia vaccine research will probably be quite pivotal for populations that we're trying to protect from the disease of infertility."
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00It's hard, it's hard at times, you know, seeing what we see, you know, day in, day
00:28after day, night after night, being called at all hours of the morning, as I said, those
00:3340 koalas that have been hit on Appen Road in the last two years, I've pretty much pulled
00:37every single one of those bodies off the road or taken them to the vet to be, you know,
00:41to die.
00:42It's huge, it's a massive toll.
01:12A large number of the populations have chlamydia within them.
01:27There's one really significant population in southwest Sydney, which is chlamydia free,
01:32and that's the population that everybody's very jealously guarding to try and ensure
01:36that they remain a fertile population.
01:49The
02:18chlamydia vaccine research will probably be quite pivotal for populations that we're
02:24trying to protect from the disease of infertility, if you like.
02:28I think while it seems doom and gloom at the moment, we can afford to be a little bit positive
02:32and say we still have the potential to make this right.