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Curing chlamydia in koalas can be just as deadly as the disease itself, and now we know why.

In humans, chlamydia is a common infection and can cause reproductive health issues. But for koalas it is more serious: the strain that infects them is often lethal. Koala chlamydia is transmitted during sex and through pap: a faecal product that females use to wean their joeys. A vaccine is in the works but it鈥檚 not ready yet.

So for now the best option seems to be antibiotics to kill the infection. But koalas often suffer serious side effects from antibiotics, so at the University of California Davis and her colleagues tried to find out why.

They gathered faecal samples from sick koalas and scanned them to see what microorganisms were living in them. Like humans many other animals, koalas have 鈥渇riendly bacteria鈥� living in their guts that help them digest food.

The team found that antibiotics had little effect on overall diversity of gut bacteria, but one species was often completely wiped out: . This species appears to be crucial because it breaks down harmful chemicals called tannins, allowing the koalas to digest the tough eucalyptus leaves that make up almost all of their diet.

Without L. koalarum to detox the tannin, the koalas seem to literally starve to death.

Starving koalas

The research is preliminary, says Dahlhausen, so other gut bacteria may also be involved.

So far, no one has found an antibiotic that will both kill chlamydia and leave the friendly gut bacteria alone. It might be possible to feed koalas a probiotic diet to restore L. koalarum, but research by others on this is in its infancy.

For now, 鈥渇aecal transplants may be the best method for offsetting the detrimental effects of antibiotics,鈥� says Dahlhausen.

The rise in chlamydia infections among koalas is partly down to stress caused by habitat loss, says , chief executive officer of the Australian Koala Foundation. 鈥淭he solution is to reduce clearing of forests so that koalas do not get sick in the first instance.鈥�