SYDNEY (Reuters) -A vaccine to protect Australia’s koalas against chlamydia has been approved for the first time, a move that scientists believe could stop the spread of the deadly disease that has ravaged populations of the beloved endangered marsupial.

The single-dose vaccine is now ready to be used nationally at wildlife hospitals, clinics and in the field.

Chlamydia, a sexually transmitted infection also found in humans, accounts for up to half of all koala deaths in the wild. It can also cause infertility and blindness.

“Some individual colonies are edging closer to local extinction every day,” Peter Timms, professor of microbiology at the University of the Sunshine Coast, said in a statement on Wednesday.

He noted that in some populations in the southeast of the state of Queensla

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