AN INHERITED virus may be the cause of chronic ill health in Australia’s koala populations. Although a viral cause has been suspected since 1988, a new study has found the first strong evidence to back this up.
Koalas are famously sickly. Up to 60 per cent of captive animals die from leukaemia or lymphoma. And they are plagued by chronic chlamydia infections, an indicator of a suppressed immune system.
In cats, these diseases are triggered by a retrovirus. Retrovirus-like particles were first identified in koalas with leukaemia in 1988, but it has proved difficult to pin these down as the…
