Logo image
Back
Epidemiology of chlamydial infection and disease in a free-ranging koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) population
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Epidemiology of chlamydial infection and disease in a free-ranging koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) population

Sharon Nyari, Courtney Waugh, Jianbao Dong, Bonnie L Quigley, Jon Hanger, J Loader, Adam Polkinghorne and Peter Timms
PLoS One, Vol.12(12), pp.1-19
2017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0190114
PMCID: PMC5744985
PMID: 29281731
pdf
PDF - Published Version (Open Access)6.57 MBDownloadView
Published Version Open Access CC BY V4.0
url
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0190114View
Published Version

Abstract

Chlamydial disease continues to be one of the main factors threatening the long-term survival of the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus). Despite this, large epidemiological studies of chlamydial infection and disease in wild koala populations are lacking. A better understanding of the prevalence, transmission and pathogenesis is needed to improve control measures, such as the development of vaccines. We investigated the prevalence of Chlamydia pecorum infection and disease in 160 koalas in a peri-urban wild population in Queensland, Australia and found that 31% of koalas were Chlamydia PCR positive and 28% had clinically detectable chlamydial disease. Most infections were at the urogenital site (27%; both males and females) with only 14% at the ocular site. Interestingly, we found that 27% (4/15) of koalas considered to be sexually immature (9-13 months) were already infected with C. pecorum, suggesting that a significant percentage of animals are infected directly from their mother. Ocular infection levels were less prevalent with increasing age (8% in koalas older than 4 years), whereas the prevalence of urogenital tract infections remained high into older age (26% in koalas older than 4 years), suggesting that, after mother-to-young transmission, C. pecorum is predominantly a sexually transmitted infection. While 28% of koalas in this population had clinically detectable chlamydial disease (primarily urogenital tract disease), many PCR positive koalas had no detectable disease and importantly, not all diseased animals were PCR positive. We also observed higher chlamydial loads in koalas who were C. pecorum infected without clinical disease than in koalas who were C. pecorum infected with clinical disease. These results shed light on the potential mechanisms of transmission of C. pecorum in koalas and also guide future control measures, such as vaccination. © 2017 Nyari et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Details

Metrics

21 File views/ downloads
693 Record Views
56 Times Cited - Web of Science

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web Of Science research areas
Veterinary Sciences

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

Source: SDGs from InCites

Logo image