Koalas eat poo and many have Chlamydia

Chlamydia is rife in some Koala populations which are seeing a 100% infection rate. The problem is that the young koalas eat a nutritious poop from their mother and this passes on the infection.

Doctors are trying to combat the problem by giving the koalas antibiotics, but the antibiotics destroy the bacteria in the koala’s stomach that allows it to digest Eucalpytus leaves (the only thing a koala eats), and they can end up starving to death.

New treatments ideas include taking the baby from its infected mother and giving it a faecal transplant from healthy donor, so that it has the bacteria to digest Eucalyptus leaves.