Jon Hanger

TL;DR: Complete and apparently truncated proviruses were detected in DNA of both clinically normal koalas and those with hematopoietic disease, and phylogenetic analysis showed that KoRV paradoxically clusters with gibbon ape leukemia virus (GALV).

TL;DR: Using quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase PCR it was demonstrated that KoRV RNA levels in plasma are significantly increased in animals suffering from leukaemia or lymphoma when compared with healthy animals, and suggests that it may be causally linked to neoplastic disease in koalas.

Abstract: Koala retrovirus (KoRV) is a newly described endogenous retrovirus and is unusual in that inserts comprise a full-length replication competent genome. As koalas are known to suffer from an extremely high incidence of leukaemia/lymphoma, the association between this retrovirus and disease in koalas was examined. Using quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase PCR it was demonstrated that KoRV RNA levels in plasma are significantly increased in animals suffering from leukaemia or lymphoma when compared with healthy animals. Increased levels of KoRV were also seen for animals with clinical chlamydiosis. A significant positive association between viral RNA levels and age was also demonstrated. Real-time PCR demonstrated as much as 5 log variation in KoRV proviral DNA levels in genomic DNA extracted from whole blood from different animals. Taken together these data indicate that KoRV is an active endogenous retrovirus and suggests that it may be causally linked to neoplastic disease in koalas.

TL;DR: This study introduces a new automated method for detection using published object detection algorithms to detect their heat signatures in RPAS-derived thermal imaging to allow for more reliable, less invasive detection of koalas in their natural habitat.

TL;DR: It is concluded that population control is possible but careful management of kangaroos around the time of anaesthesia induction and recovery is important in such programmes to minimise losses.