Everyone loves koalas. I mean how can you not, they are little fluff balls that sleep all day and eat all the time. If you don't love koalas here is a picture to change your mind.
He looks so happy! But chances are this little guy has chlamydia. Yup. Chlamydia. You know which STD I'm talking about. Well it turns out that ecologist expect that nearly half of the 80,000 wild koala population have chlamydia. . SO naturally they are being treated with high doses of antibiotics because koalas only live in Australia and there's only 80,000. We need as many of them to live and reproduce as possible. Now there are less koalas dying of chlamydia but more dying of lack of nutrients. Especially innocent little baby joeys. Researchers have determined that this is being caused by the antibiotic wiping out the tannin-protein-complex-degrading entreobacteria. Why is this bacteria important? Because eucalyptus is really toxic and doesn't have many nutrients and this bacteria slowly degrades that toxins to allow the koala to get as many nutrients as possible from the leaf. The joeys are suffering because the pap, a substance that is rich in these bacteria that is transferred from mother to joey, isn't full of the bacteria needed. This means that the joey isn't properly colonized.
So to fix this researchers have found a gene called the koala interferon gamma. This gene blocks infections including chlamydia. They think that if they can introduces these genes to each koala they can stop the antibiotic treatment. I am not sure how they would do this but it would allow our cute little friends to be infection free and nutrient rich!
Here's the link:http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/treating-koala-stds-may-also-quash-their-essential-gut-microbes/
Wow. Just wow. Are there any other species suffering from this that thrives on eucalyptus?
ReplyDeleteEucalyptus is a hard plant to live on. I dont really know if other animals eat it. But it's the treatment of chlamydia thats really causing the problem
DeleteKoalas are too damn cute to not try and help during a time of need. When reading this it reminded me of armadillos, random I know. When I was little and on the ranch I was told if I ever picked up an armadillo to make sure its claws are away from me to prevent scratching because they carry leprosy. At the time of 5 or 6 I didn't quite understand what that mean just don't do it but now reading this it makes me wonder. Humans and armadillos are the only two species that are natural habitats for the bacterium that causes leprosy, Mycobacterium leprae. The likelihood of humans actually contracting it is slim and depends on their genetic makeup and immune system, it makes me wonder if there's a something biologically happening to the armadillos because they do have this disease, or does it hinder them somehow. Research has been hard to do because the bacterium can't be grown in a lab......so until then the mystery remains unsolved.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it would probably be difficult to treat each individual koala, but I hope that they can find a way!!
ReplyDeleteDo they know why koala have chlamydia in the first place? If you can find out how they get infected in the first place maybe they can find some way to stop it before it happens..
ReplyDeleteDo they know why koala have chlamydia in the first place? If you can find out how they get infected in the first place maybe they can find some way to stop it before it happens..
ReplyDelete