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Vale Sam the Koala
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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 295843" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>The problems with treating koalas with chlamydia - their digestive systems are very different. Because their main diet is eucalyptus leaves which are tough, have a high oil content and are basically toxic and not very nutritious, koala digestion is highly adapted with symbiotic bacteria being ofvital importance. The usual treatment for chlamydia is antibiotics, which kill off te symbiotic bacteria.</p><p></p><p>If they can get to a koala soon enough, they can treat it before the chlamydia causes too much scarring. But then they have to treat the koala again to put back the good bacteria. They have actually been harvesting digestive material from healthy koalas and 'seeding' it back into the antibiotic-treated koalas. It's time-consuming, fiddly and still not always successful. They have to be sure they have harvested form healthy animals which aren't themselves in the early stages of chlamydia; they have to be sure they have inoculated them with enough bacteria to repopulate the gut and they have to be sure the sample is viable. They can't store the bacteria for long (I believe - they are making advances all the time) so they need a healthy koala handy. So it can really only happen at a place where they treat a lot of koalas, such as a koala hospital or a zoo that specialises in vet treatment of Aussie animals. Australia Zoo would be working on this, I know Port Macquarie's Koala Hospital has been working on this for decades. We were there a year ago and saw the info on this.</p><p></p><p>They're trying to get koalas listed as endangered (becaue chlamydia is doing so much damage) but our government so far isn't ready to do this. It takes pressure.</p><p></p><p>Poor darling Sam. mother in law has a beautiful sketch of her on the wall, done by a local artist.</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 295843, member: 1991"] The problems with treating koalas with chlamydia - their digestive systems are very different. Because their main diet is eucalyptus leaves which are tough, have a high oil content and are basically toxic and not very nutritious, koala digestion is highly adapted with symbiotic bacteria being ofvital importance. The usual treatment for chlamydia is antibiotics, which kill off te symbiotic bacteria. If they can get to a koala soon enough, they can treat it before the chlamydia causes too much scarring. But then they have to treat the koala again to put back the good bacteria. They have actually been harvesting digestive material from healthy koalas and 'seeding' it back into the antibiotic-treated koalas. It's time-consuming, fiddly and still not always successful. They have to be sure they have harvested form healthy animals which aren't themselves in the early stages of chlamydia; they have to be sure they have inoculated them with enough bacteria to repopulate the gut and they have to be sure the sample is viable. They can't store the bacteria for long (I believe - they are making advances all the time) so they need a healthy koala handy. So it can really only happen at a place where they treat a lot of koalas, such as a koala hospital or a zoo that specialises in vet treatment of Aussie animals. Australia Zoo would be working on this, I know Port Macquarie's Koala Hospital has been working on this for decades. We were there a year ago and saw the info on this. They're trying to get koalas listed as endangered (becaue chlamydia is doing so much damage) but our government so far isn't ready to do this. It takes pressure. Poor darling Sam. mother in law has a beautiful sketch of her on the wall, done by a local artist. Marg [/QUOTE]
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