WEBVTT - Special Episode: Chlamydia, Koalas, and More! 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:48.319 Hi, I'm Aaron Welsh and this is this podcast Will 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:53.040 Kill You. Welcome everyone to the latest bonus episode in 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:55.920 our mini series of bonus content that we've been putting 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:58.600 out over the past few months. If this is your 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:01.480 first time tuning into one of these bonus episodes, I'll 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:03.920 give a brief rundown of what I'm doing with them, 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:07.240 so you know what you're getting yourself into. In each 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:10.399 of these bonus episodes, I'm following up our last week's 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:14.720 regular season episode by interviewing an expert about some aspect 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:18.000 of the topic that we covered last week and getting 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:20.360 to explore it in much more depth than we did 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:24.400 in the regular episode. And also I'm asking these experts 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:27.679 about their careers, what they like about them, how to 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:31.039 get started, and any advice they may have for people 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:34.840 who are interested. I've had so much fun putting these 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:38.520 episodes together so far, and I've learned an incredible amount 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:43.880 about fascinating topics, ranging from deadly rabbit viruses to how 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:48.840 electricity actually works and beyond. I am super pumped for 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:52.840 this week's episode because it combines two things that I 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:55.760 didn't expect I would ever get to talk about at 0:01:55.800 --> 0:02:01.520 the same time. Koalas and sexually transmitted infection. In last 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:06.000 week's episode, Aaron and I covered chlamydia, specifically the different 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:10.160 ways that different strains of the bacterium Chlamydia trichomitis can 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:15.280 cause disease in humans, diseases such as the classic chlamydia STI, 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:21.160 the eye infection trichoma, and lymphogranuloma venerium. We discussed how 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:26.160 these obligately intracellular pathogens complete their life cycle, how they cause, 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:30.000 the signs and symptoms they're associated with, the long history 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:33.400 of their involvement as human pathogens, and where we stand 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:36.839 today in terms of the global prevalence of these diseases. 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:40.200 If you haven't listened to that episode yet, I'm gonna 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:43.120 recommend that you pause this, go listen to it, and 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:46.080 then come back, because that episode will give you some 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:50.239 good background on these bacteria in general. That will probably 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:55.280 help in terms of providing more context for this interview today. Okay, 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:58.720 so what are we going to be talking about today? 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:01.080 Even though we covered quite a bit of ground in 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:05.160 our regular season chlamydia episode, more ground than we expected 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:09.079 to cover. In many ways, we only scratch the surface 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:13.280 of chlamydia. Because the world of these bacteria is much 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:18.400 bigger than just what the human perspective shows. Chlamydia are 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:22.120 found in all kinds of animals, from birds to free 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:26.040 living ambae, from sheep to salmon, from cats to koalas, 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:31.040 and across all continents. They're everywhere, and while some species 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:35.080 of chlamydia or chlamydia like organisms don't seem to have 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:39.280 a very strong impact on their hosts, others absolutely do. 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:44.880 For instance, Chlamydia pecorum, a species nearly ubiquitous in livestock 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:49.720 around the world, has had devastating impacts on koala populations 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:54.000 in Australia and maybe you're familiar with this topic from 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:57.880 headlines a few years back talking about one direction and 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:02.800 koalas and chlamydia. In any case, these population declines have 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:08.160 generated a substantial amount of research into understanding how chlamydia 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:11.960 is spreading among koalas and in creating tools that might 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:15.880 be able to help us slow or stop transmission, with 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:21.040 one of these tools being vaccines. From this research, we 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:25.960 have learned an incredible amount about Chlamydia pecorum, and not 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:29.839 just as it relates to koalas. While the koala chlamydia 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:33.920 relationship might be the one most likely to be splashed 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:39.560 across headlines. Chlamydia pecorum can infect many animals, and several 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:43.640 other Chlamydia species can carry great importance for other wildlife, 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:48.920 for domestic livestock, or as zonotic pathogens of public health importance, 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:52.159 but we don't yet know quite as much about those 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:56.520 host pathogen relationships. So it seems like what we need 0:04:56.640 --> 0:05:01.320 is a complementary approach conducting more indep studies on koalas, 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:06.440 chlamydia and vaccines, while also performing more exploratory research on 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:11.279 how Chlamydia picorum and other chlamydia species impact other wildlife 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:16.200 and domestic livestock. In this bonus episode, I am beyond 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:21.120 thrilled to talk with two scientists, doctor Martina Yelochnik and 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:24.800 doctor Sam Phillips, both at the University of the Sunshine 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:28.640 Coast in Australia, whose research aims to do exactly that. 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:34.760 These two super cool, clemydiologists have been examining questions of 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:39.200 chlamydia in Australia from these different but complementary angles, and 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:42.120 I can't wait to hear what they have found. So 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:45.000 let's get to it. We'll take a quick break here 0:05:45.160 --> 0:06:09.480 and then I'll let them introduce themselves. 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:17.279 Hi. I'm Martina Yolotnik and I am veterinary clomedian veterinary 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:24.960 molecular microbiologists from University of the Sunshine Coast here in Queensland, Australia, 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:31.320 and I work on veterinary clomedia, livestock, birds, koalas and 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:33.800 all the other animals. 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:37.320 Saint Phillips and I also work at the University of 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:43.080 the Sunshine Coast at the center of Buying Innovation. I 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:46.320 worked with Martina for the last five years and I'm 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:50.880 a molecular microbiologist working on the Koala chlamdia vaccine as 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:56.120 well as some other human clamia projects as well. 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:59.640 Wonderful Thank you both so much for agreeing to chat 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:03.520 with me. I am very excited to talk so much 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:05.719 more about Clymythia than I ever thought I ever would, 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:09.040 So let's dive in. I was wondering if you could 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:13.440 start off by telling me a bit about your educational journeys. 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:15.680 Did you always know that you wanted to be a 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:18.680 scientist or was that something you discovered later on? 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:22.520 So I always wanted to be a scientist ever since 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:26.040 I was in a high school in Australia. I had 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:30.760 an interesting journey moving through a diploma in laboratory sciences 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:35.400 to fine tune my laboratory techniques, and then an undergraduate 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:39.080 and honors degree. My honors degree was actually in looking 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:43.600 for vaccine targets in chickens for a disease known as 0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:48.400 campbel backta. From there I actually worked in diagnostics, diagnostic 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:51.840 pathology and human pathology for seven years and then moved 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:54.880 over into research where I was a research assistant for 0:07:55.760 --> 0:08:01.520 five years working in human papillonavirus vaccine analysis within Australia 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:05.880 as well as some Comedia projects which got me interested 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:10.640 in chlamydia and collaborating with my eventual PhD supervisor PLA 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:14.000 teams and came up to Sanshine Coast to work on 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:17.840 the Koala Colonia vaccine from my PhD and since then 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:22.600 I've continued working with Peter on the vaccine and now 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:27.680 the lead post doc research fellow running four different vaccentrals. 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:31.440 Well, as you can see, I have a little bit 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:35.840 of accent, so I'm actually not originally from Australia. I 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:39.480 come from Belgrade, Serbia. Since I was younger, I was 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:43.040 influenced by my aunt who was a doctor, so I 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.720 always wanted to be a medical doctor, and I was 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:50.600 just so fascinated when she was talking about disease and microbiology. 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:54.480 So as such, I did medical high school in Belgrade 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:59.880 and I started medical UNI. But because we moved like 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:03.240 family to Australia, so then I had to postpone a 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:07.240 little bit my educational journey. So I wasn't a citizen, 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:11.040 and the universities were then a little bit expensive, so 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:14.600 I had to wait until I become auzzy, then take 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:18.760 a loan and dived in back into the study. So 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:24.120 I did undergrads majoring in microbiology. So yep, I always 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:27.480 stay true to my micro It was right or die, 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:35.720 and that continued with honors and continue it PhD in microbiology, 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:38.959 and in honors is where I first heard about this 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:43.040 pesky clomedia. So everybody was talking call it clamdia, call 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:46.920 it clamydia. But there was another host, livestock, and I 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:50.760 was thinking like, okay, well you don't nobody's talking about livestock. 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:54.240 I'll do it. Let's see what happens there and with 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:56.800 same so we are actually within the same group. We 0:09:56.920 --> 0:10:00.800 had the same supervisors, and I I'm kind of like 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:04.200 that child that never wants to leave home. So then 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:07.680 I stayed with my PhD in clam media and I 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:12.959 got my fellowship aget on clamydia, but this time on 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:16.360 a slightly different clamdia. So we started looking at clamydia 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:20.120 in birds, some novel cla media that it's you know, 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:25.839 doesn't get much attention in Australia. And I'm still here 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:28.520 and I think we will see what future holds. But 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:32.800 now we are also looking at clamydia and other bugs 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:37.679 because clamydia it's never there alone. Interesting. 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:42.320 Wow, what amazing journeys. So I have another question for 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:48.160 you before we dive into chamydia talk, and that is advice. 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:51.360 Do you have any advice for someone who might be 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:56.520 interested in pursuing a career in STIs or wildlife disease 0:10:56.760 --> 0:11:00.160 or one health anything you wish someone had told you 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:01.520 at the beginning of your career. 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:06.199 My journey into where I am now, I've learned a 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:08.200 lot along the way, and I made some mistakes and 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:10.800 then I moved back into it. And I think, don't 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:15.000 be afraid for people wanting to get into research in general, 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:17.520 but into SCIS and vaccines, to start off in something 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:20.000 which it could open the door to something you've never 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:24.000 thought of before. I started out in the HPV vaccine research, 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:28.720 which is it's already developed, and I thought, I can't 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:30.679 be that much research, we're a ready giving it to people. 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:33.600 But there's so much more you can learn. So don't 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:36.600 close your mind off to thinking that if something's already 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:37.120 well known. 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:37.480 Don't. 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:40.199 Yeah, there's still lots more that we can learn, and 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:45.319 that yeah, sdis they have commonalities between the different species, 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:49.719 and so there's different antibiotics treatment between so clamin here 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:54.240 and gonera markeroplasmos all basically the same antibiotics, and they 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:56.960 share different mechanisms. So I don't think you just pigeonhole 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.720 down to the one organism. You can always move on. 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:06.160 So my advice to young scientists is collaborate. Collaborate a 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:10.559 lot because you need those connections. We need to connect 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:15.599 with our vets, with our GPS, with our researchers, researchers 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:18.360 who work on a slightly different aspect of the host 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:21.560 that you may do. That is the only way that 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:24.920 you could get the full picture. And then by collaborating, 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:28.560 and I often say talking with ways smarter people than me, 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:32.160 I continuously learn a lot and then I pick up 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:35.920 something that I didn't thought of it. So for me, 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:40.439 big part of what I do, it's a whole plethora 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:46.760 of collaboration from vets, from the producers, because especially in livestock, 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:49.640 they're the ones who are feeling the effects of this 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:52.120 disease on the farm. So we need to go from 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:57.160 the producer to the vet, to the diagnostic laboratory team, 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:00.360 to us in research, to all of our colleagues around 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:04.920 the world. So I would say, collaborate eorly, and collaborate 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:07.560 with good people and with a good team, and the 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:10.920 collaboration cannot be sustained. That's okay too. 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:16.560 Both excellent pieces of advice. All right, Now let's get 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:22.320 in to some chlamydia talk, specifically Chlamydia pecorum. Who does 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:25.120 this pathogen in fact, and how is it transmitted? 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:30.920 Clomydia pecorum. Although globally it's probably known as the notorious 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:35.800 coala pathogen, actually it's not. I often say it's a 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:40.120 livestock pathogen more than anything. So in fact, wide range 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:44.680 of livestock, including cattle, sheep, goats, as well as wild 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:50.760 ruminants such as let's say, reindeer, water buffalos, and recently 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:54.280 we also worked on studies when we detect chlamydia pecorum 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:59.280 in birds. How is it transmitted? We think that it's 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:05.040 most likely fic laural transmission, but it can also be 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:08.560 from direct contact, which same can explain, like when you 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:12.160 have to qualifighting, you know they can kind of touch 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:16.280 each other and maybe transmit or vent a sheep or 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:19.320 catalyts in the close contact, so they can transmit let's 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:24.160 say ocular Chlamydia picorm infections, but most likely to feic laural. 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:28.160 And how is it different from Chlamydia trichomedis. I mean, 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:31.960 Chlamydia trichomitis is a human specific pathogen, right, but are 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:36.320 there any overall big picture differences between those two species? 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:42.240 The differences between the coomas that the core can infect 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:47.120 a variety of different hosts. Trichymitis is strictly human pathogen, 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:49.760 that doesn't we don't find it anywhere else. We can't 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:52.440 even get it really to affect moss, whereas the core 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:55.680 will affect Yeah, I'm not tying to mention a variete 0:14:55.720 --> 0:15:00.200 of different host species and thoughts as far as as 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:04.400 disease and infection roots, they're fairly similar. I mean, we 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:08.680 know that Trichromais can infect the oculo gasha intestinal eurogenital 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:15.640 quite readily, so that's fairly similar. In the disease presentations 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:19.040 are fairly similar. You do get the LGBs, the limphogranuloma 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:23.800 venereal strains of chlamydia, which are slightly different to what 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:26.600 we see in animals, although that could just be that 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:29.960 we're missing a link there with animals, so more research. 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:34.920 And the TIGI tropism is really interesting. We've tried many 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:39.040 different studies with Pcorum to identify tropisms based on Usually 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:42.360 we look at a single gene that out of membrane protein. 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:45.320 The gene responsible for that is of a which we 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:48.800 don't find with Chlamydia picorum or other species of chlamydia, 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:53.120 but with trichromitis it's fairly stringent. We find that there's 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:58.040 specific oculis types and specific eurogenital types. These so you 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:00.800 get modeled when you start looking at the gastro intest infections. 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:06.160 But yeah, traditionally you can have the ocular strength. Specifically, 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:09.400 they cannot infect the ear general track. That's due to 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:14.640 some specific gene mutations that difficult throughout evolution of trachonitists. 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:17.800 So yeah, there are there's similarities, but then there's also 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:19.600 have some really distinct differences between them. 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:24.680 Two, Where did Chlamydia pecorum come from? What are its 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:27.840 natural hosts? And how did it get into Australia. 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:32.320 Erin, that's a five million dollar question. I think we 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:34.920 moved from one million I'm going to go now into 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:40.240 five million dollar question. So up to you know, a while, 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:44.600 we all hypothesized, oh, yes, you know, Chlamydia picora most 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:49.840 likely came with the European colonization and with the bringing 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:54.200 the livestock, because here and there, you know, using molecular studies, 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:58.800 we have these sneepets of information which says, oh, you 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:01.200 know you have coal as share in that they're genetically 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:06.400 similar to livestock. Thereby, tantalizingly, we say, oh, yeah, that's 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:10.440 the origin. But but I was a believer. I was 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:16.040 a believer. But then I converted the wider the event. 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:21.200 And of course, you know, beyond gene typing schemes, we 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:26.320 started looking at the whole genome sequences again that's still 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:30.240 in infancy for pecorum and we are seeing very distinct 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:37.679 lineages between koala strains and livestock strains. So then that 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:40.639 opens up, you know, new questions. It's kind of like 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:44.520 a Pandora box so you wonder, are we not sampling 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:49.959 the intermediate line edge, are we missing a host? Maybe 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:53.760 we don't know, you know, especially in Australia, we're kind 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:56.879 of like a host centric So it's either quala as 0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:00.960 a host or it's a livestock, but what about everything 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:04.639 in between? So we know from our colleagues from Europe 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:12.440 and the US that chlamydia can infect pigs, reindeer, chamois, ibex, birds, 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.800 variety of birds. So honestly, erin we do not know. 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:21.119 It is very tantalizing to think that we had some 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:25.080 that we do have or head some kind of spillovers. 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:28.640 But at the moment we really truly don't have solid 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:33.480 information to answer that question. So we need to work harder, 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:38.000 We need to sample wider, we need to sequence way 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:43.840 more than we do now in order to answer such questions. Amazing. 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:46.800 So you know, as we've talked about, one of the 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:51.359 species most impacted by Chlamydia pacorum is, of course, the 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:57.280 adorable and charismatic koala. When did people first start noticing 0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:01.960 that koalas were becoming infected with the specteram. 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:05.320 As early as European settlement in Australia, there's reports of 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:11.280 indications that the coalas were suffering from chlamydial diseases back then. 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:14.840 This is all kind of based on observations of disease 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:18.359 presentation back in the wasn't a lot of diagnostic analysis 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:21.920 specifically for wildlife back then. It gets a little bit confusing. 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:26.280 I'm sure your listeners will know that the chlamydia nonenclature 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:30.200 has changed over the years. And it's not that long 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:32.639 ago that we only discovered that there was more than 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:36.679 just Chlamydia citizide Colomitia trichromas around. So the quorum has 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:40.400 only been around for the last thirty years with identification. 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:44.080 So yeah, it's difficult to say how long the chorum 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:47.240 has been infecting koalas, but yeah, possibly for at least 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:48.399 the last two hundred years. 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:53.080 What does an infection with Chlamydia pecorum look like in 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:57.359 koalas and how fetal can it bear? 0:19:57.520 --> 0:20:00.960 The top so in ocular disease. Coalas go infection in 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:05.800 their conjunct diver and this creates inflammation which normally your 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:09.200 conjunk eva is quite smooth, and as it goes over 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:13.680 the eyelids, this inflammation causes scarring of the eyelids. You 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:17.840 get these nodules and it eventually causes blindness in the 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:22.520 colas in their eyes. In the eurogeneral tract, chlamydia can 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:26.679 ascend the urethra and can't go into the bladder. This 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:29.960 causes cystitis, which is inflammation of the blood of wall 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:33.920 and coilers can carry this for huge amounts of time. 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:36.879 They obviously they don't have a local GP that they 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:39.040 can go and get some anabiotics for, so they suffer 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:42.000 in silence with this disease and it can end up. 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:45.240 I've seen coils with golf ball sized necrotic masses in 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:51.240 their bladders from slothing off tissue just from these chronic infections. 0:20:51.680 --> 0:20:56.080 It can ascend the euroters up to the kidneys, causes 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:59.000 lesions in the euroters and then can cause nephritis in 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:02.680 the kidneys. Then we also have a reproductive disease as well. 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:06.520 So there's been some recent reports showing that male choalas 0:21:06.560 --> 0:21:10.800 can have inflammation in the testes and can affect fertility 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:13.879 emails and in females. We definitely know that there is 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:18.520 reproductive tract infections. There are links to the development of 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:24.040 reproductive cysts, which can in turn lead to infertility. How 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:28.520 fatal is it kolas coming into wildlife hospitals. It changes 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:31.600 over the years depending on breeding, seasonal and not on averages. 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:35.879 About fifty percent ofalas die from this disease. It's a 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:40.040 horrible disease for them. They come in with these severe 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:43.120 euter infections and you can hear them like crying from 0:21:43.160 --> 0:21:47.920 the urine. They become incontinent. In severe cases, it stains 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:50.120 their fur on their rump so much that they get 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:54.480 these extra eurogenital absences from their constant wet staining of 0:21:54.560 --> 0:21:58.040 they're rump and they can't sit down, and then yeah, 0:21:58.520 --> 0:21:59.800 it just becomes terrible. 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:07.119 That sounds really horrible. And how is chlamythia transmitted among koalas? 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:10.520 I mean a lot of it is still sexual transmission, 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:13.280 but there's also the fecal oil root. We believe that 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:16.040 they do get infected when climbing trees. This is a 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:20.919 koala above them that say urinates with chlamydia infection. That 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:24.359 could be a spill over to ocular sites and things. 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:28.560 We know that some joeys do get colminia infections from 0:22:28.600 --> 0:22:34.119 infected mothers, not necessarily through birthing. There's quite a lot 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:37.440 of antibacterial properties within the pouch as well. As obviously marsupial. 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:39.399 But then once they become a joey and they live 0:22:39.440 --> 0:22:41.440 on the back, they're crawling all over the mother's back 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:45.840 and they can get infected that way. Yeah, there's other speculations, 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:49.720 but mostly it's through fecal, aural sexual and then you know, 0:22:49.840 --> 0:22:50.840 mother's a joey. 0:22:51.880 --> 0:22:55.760 And if a koala recovers from an infection with chlamythia, 0:22:56.240 --> 0:22:59.879 can it become reinfected or is there any lasting immunity? 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:04.480 We have some evidence to show that infection doesn't give 0:23:04.480 --> 0:23:07.840 the coals long lasting community. They can up to maybe 0:23:07.880 --> 0:23:11.560 a month or so. We see depending on the wildlife, 0:23:11.600 --> 0:23:15.720 hospital and population densities, you can have up to eighty 0:23:15.720 --> 0:23:19.200 percent of the koalas that have become infected will eventually 0:23:19.200 --> 0:23:22.919 come back with new infections. It does differ with the 0:23:22.920 --> 0:23:24.399 different populations as well. 0:23:25.440 --> 0:23:30.359 There are effective antibiotics that exist for chlamydia and Chlamydia pacorum, 0:23:30.800 --> 0:23:34.880 but they aren't recommended necessarily for use with koalas. Can 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:36.080 you talk about why that? 0:23:36.280 --> 0:23:36.399 Is? 0:23:37.680 --> 0:23:41.920 Coils really interesting species. Their diet is based on eucalyptus leaves, 0:23:41.920 --> 0:23:45.199 which are highly toxic, so the coals have developed a 0:23:45.320 --> 0:23:50.399 unique evolutionary trait where they have cytocurrent people fifty gene 0:23:50.440 --> 0:23:57.000 which detoxifies drugs and chemicals, and coils have huge repeats 0:23:57.000 --> 0:23:59.280 in this region, up to sixteen repeats in this region, 0:23:59.320 --> 0:24:03.119 which means they are really good at the toxifying chemicals 0:24:03.160 --> 0:24:06.800 and drugs and antibiotics. So a lot of antibiotics that 0:24:06.920 --> 0:24:09.760 would be useful for chlamydia, they need to be used 0:24:09.760 --> 0:24:12.679 at such high doses and choalas that it ends up 0:24:12.680 --> 0:24:16.160 being fatal for the choalas, so the limits the number 0:24:16.160 --> 0:24:19.360 of antibotics we can use. The first line of defense 0:24:19.520 --> 0:24:21.840 for at least the last ten to fifteen years was 0:24:21.920 --> 0:24:28.359 chlorin frenicol that had shady efficacy in treatment, so it 0:24:28.440 --> 0:24:32.240 does work, but only sixty to seventy percent of cases. 0:24:32.640 --> 0:24:35.160 But that was the only antibotic that had been trialed 0:24:35.160 --> 0:24:38.199 and what we could use, so they were utilizing that. 0:24:38.240 --> 0:24:42.719 But it also causes gastro intestinal dysbiosis, doesn't work all 0:24:42.760 --> 0:24:47.320 the time, and when koalas have the gut flora strict, 0:24:48.000 --> 0:24:50.320 they can't digest so leave and they end up starving 0:24:50.760 --> 0:24:55.359 to death. So antibotics are a terrible choice anyway, but 0:24:55.400 --> 0:24:58.320 they do help in some cases. Recently, there was a 0:24:58.320 --> 0:25:02.520 trial that showed that we can start using doxy cyclone, which, 0:25:02.840 --> 0:25:06.359 as you can imagine, there is a lot wider distribution 0:25:06.440 --> 0:25:10.560 that's used in humans, so access is no problem at all. 0:25:10.680 --> 0:25:14.000 Chlorophenicol isn't used in humans anymore, so nobody wants to 0:25:14.040 --> 0:25:16.040 make it anymore, so it's kind of difficult to get 0:25:16.040 --> 0:25:20.280 hold of as well. Anybody are grateful their use in clearing, 0:25:20.640 --> 0:25:22.240 but they have a lot of side effects as well, 0:25:22.320 --> 0:25:25.840 so we like to think the vaccine is your best bet. 0:25:28.160 --> 0:25:31.879 What have been some of the population level impacts of 0:25:32.000 --> 0:25:36.080 Chlamydia percorum on koalas so far? And can you also 0:25:36.119 --> 0:25:40.280 discuss any of the downstream effects that koala population losses 0:25:40.400 --> 0:25:43.600 have had on other members of the ecosystem. 0:25:44.119 --> 0:25:47.680 Population level impacts of koalas are due to chlamydia, it's not. 0:25:48.040 --> 0:25:50.600 I can't just say that the population is being affected 0:25:50.840 --> 0:25:55.879 solely by chlamythia. These animals are affected by deforestation, population 0:25:56.359 --> 0:26:00.280 encroachion onto their habitat. So as far as direct actally 0:26:00.280 --> 0:26:04.080 comparable to committee of thecorum, it's a difficult question. But overall, 0:26:04.200 --> 0:26:09.240 the koalas, some populations have been completely they're extinct, so 0:26:09.880 --> 0:26:12.760 we don't have this populations in Queensland that have become 0:26:12.840 --> 0:26:17.920 extinct local populations and the koala populations in Queensland and 0:26:17.960 --> 0:26:23.200 Southeast Queensland have decreased. They are been listed as endangered 0:26:23.320 --> 0:26:26.640 just recently, so they've been decreasing ever since. The list 0:26:26.720 --> 0:26:31.080 has threatened in twenty eighteen and now they've been further 0:26:31.119 --> 0:26:35.119 downgraater to endangered. We're seeing this in New South Wales 0:26:35.160 --> 0:26:38.320 as well. There's this strong decline. This has been impacted 0:26:38.359 --> 0:26:42.240 by recent fires as well in twenty twenty, so that's 0:26:42.520 --> 0:26:46.600 almost sped the decline of these populations. When you get 0:26:46.600 --> 0:26:51.320 further down into Southern Australia, into Victoria and South Australia, 0:26:51.400 --> 0:26:56.000 the populations aren't endangered. The disease presentation is a lot less. 0:26:56.040 --> 0:27:00.600 There's other factors. So there's a retrovirus Koala retroviral effects 0:27:00.640 --> 0:27:04.040 coils we believe has an impact on the chlamydia disease. 0:27:05.160 --> 0:27:09.960 So we do see a shift of disease prevalence increasing 0:27:10.520 --> 0:27:13.879 in a southerly direction. The ecosystem. That was a really 0:27:13.880 --> 0:27:16.280 interesting question. I had to go and school myself a 0:27:16.280 --> 0:27:20.760 little bit on this. So koala's obviously they live in 0:27:20.800 --> 0:27:24.480 eucalyp forests and not a lot of animals eat eucalyptus leave, 0:27:24.560 --> 0:27:27.240 so Coala has actually helped to control the growth of 0:27:27.280 --> 0:27:31.400 these eucalyptus forests. They allow for light to be able 0:27:31.440 --> 0:27:34.160 to come through the forest floor to increase the biodiversity 0:27:34.200 --> 0:27:38.040 on the forest floor, which helps the forest flaw organism, 0:27:38.119 --> 0:27:43.879 so microorganisms, insects, even small mammals. They also help to 0:27:43.920 --> 0:27:50.159 control bushfires surprisingly, so as they keep the growth eucalyptus 0:27:50.200 --> 0:27:54.120 growth under control, it's less likely to have a lot 0:27:54.119 --> 0:27:57.720