Diseases capable of wiping out all stocks

A PERFECT storm of disease poses the greatest threat to embattled koala populations on the Gold Coast and in northern NSW, warns leading wildlife veterinarian Michael Pyne.

He says koalas in Queensland are being crippled and are dying from a combination of chlamydia and the immunesuppressant korv retrovirus that, although not linked to AIDS, is a similar type of disease.

“Retrovirus can cause lymph node cancers and leukaemias,’’ Dr Pyne said.

“It suppresses the immune system so there is every chance that the retrovirus and the chlamydia together are a perfect storm of diseases that’s really knocking them around.’’

The Currumbin Wildlife Hospital treated 410 sick and injured koalas last year.

Dr Pyne, the hospital’s head veterinarian, said all koalas were tested for disease.

Fifty per cent were found to have chlamydia.

“If you get it early it’s very treatable. That’s the sad thing,’’ he said of animals found with advanced cases of the disease.

“Realistically, if we don’t get some way of controlling chlamydia, it is going to wipe them out.’’

The koalas the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary sent to China a decade ago for a breeding program at a Guangzhou wildlife park were all free of chlamydia, but did have retrovirus.

“Retrovirus is passed vertically. The bubs are born with it,’’ he said.

“Every northern species, koalas in Queensland and northern NSW, have retrovirus.”

The koalas in China were healthy, despite the presence of the virus.

Dr Pyne said the danger lay in the spread of diseases south, where disease-free populations faced another danger – too many healthy koalas for the feed available.

“They are creeping further and further south,’’ he said.

“In South Australia and Victoria, koalas have bred to the point where they’re starving to death. We’ve gone into areas and euthanased koalas because they’ve run out of food.

“Those areas don’t have retrovirus and don’t have chlamydia, but they’re moving south. We’re starting to get calls from vets down there saying ‘Hey, I’ve got my first chlamydia case, what do I do’?”

Cars, dogs and “awful’’ habitat destruction were also killers.

“Of course they are playing a role,’’ he said.

“If we weren’t losing habitat then the koalas would be doing better, there’s no doubt.

“But if we’re to save them we have to find a way of controlling these diseases.’’