A vaccine has been approved to help protect koalas against chlamydia, a measure researchers are hailing as a world-first in fighting the disease that is a leading cause of death for the beloved marsupials.

Researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC) in Australia said Wednesday it took more than 10 years to develop a single-dose vaccine that does not require a booster that it hopes will aid in “reducing the rapid, devastating spread of this disease.”

“Some individual colonies are edging closer to local extinction every day, particularly in South East Queensland and New South Wales, where infection rates within populations are often around 50 percent and in some cases can reach as high as 70 percent,” Peter Timms, a microbiology professor at the university who led the resea

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