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More than 70 donors contributed over $10,000 to the QUT Spring Appeal which - along with a substantial allocation from Brisbane City Council - will enable a QUT-led research team to move  closer to registering a vaccine against chlamydial disease.

The research team, led by leading immunologist Professor Ken Beagley (QUT School of Biomedical Science) in collaboration with Currumbin Wildlife Hospital and senior vet Dr Michael Pyne, has been working on a vaccine since 2007.

After 10 years’ developing the vaccine, trials started three years ago on a localised Gold Coast koala population at Elanora. Results have exceeded expectations - and Professor Beagley says there is now enough data to suggest that the vaccine is largely safe, effective and ready to be made more widely available as trials continue.

Registration would enable use by vet clinics and wildlife hospitals throughout the country, without needing the university ethics approval it currently requires as an experimental product.

The good news does not stop there. In what Professor Beagley labels a “huge milestone”, the first QUT-vaccinated koala (Anne Chovee) has been released back into the wild, chlamydia free and having produced a healthy joey.

In total, nearly 300 koalas have been vaccinated and tracked – about 40 from Elanora, plus all animals treated and released from Currumbin hospital. The majority of koalas that were chlamydia-free at time of vaccination have remained disease-free on return visit.

There have also been 34 joeys born to vaccinated females, plus a second-generation baby koala (grand joey). Professor Beagley said such results drive his passion and keep him working towards the long-term goal of a chlamydia-free koala status nationwide.

The pilot program has now been extended to Brisbane, with the backing of the city council.

The sexually transmitted disease of chlamydia is a major threat, causing infertility, blindness and urinary tract disease. Koalas in Queensland, NSW and ACT are listed as endangered, despite conservation efforts of the past 20 years.

Without meaningful and widespread intervention, localised extinction for one of Australia’s iconic and most-loved animals is a real threat.

Lifelong protection from chlamydia will mean healthy joeys being born and populations being rebuilt. Vaccinating even 10 per cent of a young population should significantly reduce disease incidence over a five-year period.

The registration process for the QUT-developed vaccine could take up to three years. It would see  CSIRO make the antigens, and a vaccine producer formulate and take the product forward, with more testing possibly needed.

“We want to see healthy koala populations across Australia,” Professor Beagley said.

“After habitat destruction, dog attacks and car strikes, disease is the next most pressing issue for koalas … a healthy koala can live for eight to 12 years in the wild (but) once you get a geographically isolated population that is stressed, chlamydia can take hold …

“Since the early 2000s, we have seen a 70-80 per cent decline in many koala populations across Queensland so koalas need all the help we can give them.”

Professor Beagley’s research team is also developing booster technology to alleviate need to hold or recapture koalas. A one-shot implant, slightly bigger than a pet microchip and inserted under skin, would mean kinder treatment and less interference, “letting koalas be koalas”.

The two-shot vaccine is being tested in a five-year treat-and-track study.

Dr Pyne, who has been treating koalas for more than 20 years, said it was “vital we get to the stage where we are preventing this massive disease - and (widespread) vaccination is the key”.

“It is exciting there is opportunity for this vaccine to be registered nationwide … it’s making a real difference out there in the wild.”