Smithsonian Learning Lab
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Updates
  • Help
  • FAQ
  • My Learning Lab:

    Login or Sign Up

    Forgot My Password

    Please provide your account's email address and we will e-mail you instructions to reset your password

    ×Error



    Do you want to reset password now?

    You are about to leave Smithsonian Learning Lab.

    The link you clicked is NOT part of Smithsonian Learning Lab, but we hope you come back soon.

    http://ikeepsafe.org/privacy/ferpa/

    Would you like to proceed?

    Resources

      Learning Lab Collection

        Delete Resource - Researchers Say Culling Koalas May Save Them From Chlamydia

        Are you sure?

        Restore Archived - Researchers Say Culling Koalas May Save Them From Chlamydia

        Are you sure?
        Smithsonian Learning Lab
        Researchers Say Culling Koalas May Save Them From Chlamydia

        Source

        Smithsonian Magazine

        OBJECT TYPE

        Speeches (documents) Lectures Blog posts Smithsonian staff publications

        DESCRIPTION

        Koalas may be on the road to recovery after nearly being wiped out at the beginning of the 20th century, but it’s not all sun-drenched naps and eucalyptus chow for the furry marsupials. Over the last few years, tens of thousands of Australia’s koalas have been struck by a devastating strain of chlamydia that is painful and often fatal for the struggling species. Now, some researchers say the koala’s best hope of survival might be a controversial one: controlled culling.

        In humans, chlamydia is a relatively common sexually-transmitted infection that, if caught early, is easily cured through antibiotics. But for koalas, it’s a different story. Once infected with chlamydia, koalas can go blind, become infertile, and can develop a painful, debilitating infection known as “dirty tail”—a condition that infects the urinary tract and is often fatal, Katie Silver reports for the BBC.

        “About half the koalas across Australia are infected,” David Wilson, an epidemiologist with Melbourne’s Burnet Institute, tells Silver. “In closed populations, the majority can be infected—sometimes up to 80%.”

        While chlamydia in koalas can be treated with antibiotics, many of the animals are too badly infected for the treatments to help them recover. At the same time, many koalas are also being infected with a retrovirus like HIV that could make the chlamydia infections worse. Even if researchers were to administer antibiotics, they would have to round up koalas on an enormous scale in order to have any hope at stemming the epidemic, Wilson tells Bridget Brennan for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

        There’s also the problem of the antibiotics’ own side effects. “Koalas have a gut full of bacteria that is essential to digest eucalyptus leaves,” Queensland University of Technology microbiologist Peter Timms tells Silver. “So if you’re giving them systematic antibiotics, it is actually killing this.”

        Wilson argues that a controlled cull of the most severely diseased individuals could help stop the epidemic by getting rid of animals that would die anyway before they can infect others. Though killing koalas to save the species may sound paradoxical, if a strategic cull began now Wilson says that within 5 to 10 years researchers could begin seeing koala populations razed by chlamydia begin to bounce back, Brennan reports.

        Culling is a controversial practice, but it’s not unheard of. There are currently plans to cull about 2 million feral cats in parts of Australia in order to protect native, endangered animals, and in the early 2000’s researchers experimented with culling Tasmanian Devil populations in order to try and stem the spread of a transmissible strain of facial cancer, although Wilson says that program was unsuccessful due to poor management.

        Wildlife lecturer Desley Whisson,  from Deakin University, tells Brennan that while she agrees with Wilson’s culling proposal, it will be tough to sell to the government and the Australian public. "At the national level culling is not permitted for any reason for koalas so it would have to be a turnaround in the thinking at the Commonwealth level for that to be allowed," she tells Brennan.

        For now, Wilson is working on hopes that authorities will allow tests of culling infected koalas in parts of Queensland and New South Wales to see if it can help stop the chlamydia epidemic.

        "To kill koalas, of course there is going to be a reaction," Wilson tells Brennan. "They're just lucky they're cute and so we don't want to do something like that but I'm here trying to save the koalas.”

        BLOG POST CATEGORY

        Smart News

        Smart News Science

        NAME

        Smithsonian Magazine
        Creator : Smithsonian Magazine

        Keywords

        Smart News Science Smart News

        DATES

        2010s
        Published Date : Tue, 16 Feb 2016 13:30:00 +0000


        Additional Resource Information
        Record Link : http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/researchers-say-culling-koalas-may-save-them-chlamydia-180958131/
        See more post : Smithsonian Article Database
        Record Id : posts_37516878c5969fe16dbcbfb3c5f1017d


        Record Information
        The resources in the Smithsonian Learning Lab are contributed by museums, libraries, and archives from across the Smithsonian. We are constantly working to provide improved information for you. If you spot an error or know of an addition to this resource, please contact us and we will pass it on for further research and review.

        Smithsonian Learning Lab
        Smithsonian Learning Lab
        About Help Contact Us Updates Terms of Use Provide Feedback
        Privacy Kids Online Privacy Statement
        iKeepSafe FERPA Badge iKeepSafe COPPA Badge Common Sense Education

        Your Browser is not compatible with site. Do you still want to continue?