00:00I guess there's still a lot we need to learn about it, but, you know, the suggestions are
00:06that for QAL, it's a relatively new disease, so we're talking, you know, the last hundred
00:11or so years, so they're still kind of naive to chlamydia, so they haven't, you know, developed
00:18that immunity and it's, I guess, post-COVID now, everyone understands that, you know,
00:23when a new disease emerges, you know, it can spread very quickly and cause massive problems,
00:28but once you develop a bit of immunity, then, you know, things start to turn around and
00:33certainly chlamydia is, it spreads slowly, so it's still spreading throughout Australia
00:38and, you know, those populations that haven't been exposed get exposed and it's very devastating
00:44when it first emerges.
00:45In areas, you know, where we're focusing our efforts, you know, well over half those koalas
00:51are infected and dying from chlamydia, you know, this is a nasty disease that, you know,
00:57certainly kills a lot of koalas and those koalas that survive, often they're infertile,
01:02so, you know, when we're talking an endangered species that, you know, a disease that's making
01:06them infertile and they can't breed, of course, that, you know, makes things even worse for
01:11those that can actually survive the disease, so it is a massive problem, I mean, there's
01:17certainly areas where it doesn't seem to be as bad and, you know, that, of course, gives
01:21us hope that, you know, that some koalas may be genetically stronger and able to, you
01:27know, maybe resist it, but certainly in many areas it's a massive problem and it's certainly
01:34leading the way as far as, you know, decimating their population number.
01:38The vaccine itself's been around for almost 10 years now, developed by Ken Bigley at QUT
01:44and I guess what we're doing is really putting it in a situation where we're using it in
01:50a very diseased population, vaccinating koalas when they're young and healthy and then following
01:55them through and, you know, seeing does the vaccine work, do these koalas breed, is there
02:01hope to be able to turn things around, you know, and actually get the numbers to start
02:06to build back up in these highly diseased populations and, look, we've been doing it
02:11for about three and a half years now and certainly, you know, the results are very encouraging
02:17that, you know, we're providing a level of protection.
02:20It's not perfect, you know, no vaccines are, but certainly it's encouraging enough to be
02:26able to say we're making a difference and, you know, when we're dealing with such a nasty
02:31disease and any difference is quite important.
02:34And I think this is just the start as with, you know, as we know with COVID, you know,
02:38the first vaccines developed were never the, you know, they're not the ones we're using
02:42now.
02:43So, you know, the chlamydia vaccine will evolve, it will improve over the years, but certainly
02:49we need to, you know, I guess, be getting in that space where we're using it more to
02:53be able to make, you know, that difference.
02:55QUT are working very hard to get emergency registration of the vaccine and, you know,
03:01hopefully in the not too distant future, there'll be agreement between a number of parties to
03:06be able to get that over the line and make that a reality.
03:09So then it can be used, you know, across the country to, you know, koala populations
03:15where it's needed.
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