Koala immunogenetics and chlamydial strain type are more directly involved in chlamydial disease progression in koalas from two south east Queensland koala populations than koala retrovirus subtypes.

ABSTRACT: Chlamydial disease control is increasingly utilised as a management tool to stabilise declining koala populations, and yet we have a limited understanding of the factors that contribute to disease progression. To examine the impact of host and pathogen genetics, we selected two geographically separated south east Queensland koala populations, differentially affected by chlamydial disease, and analysed koala major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes, circulating strains of Chlamydia pecorum and koala retrovirus (KoRV) subtypes in longitudinally sampled, well-defined clinical groups. We found that koala immunogenetics and chlamydial genotypes differed between the populations. Disease progression was associated with specific MHC alleles, and we identified two putative susceptibility (DCb 0

SUBMITTER: Robbins A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7490398 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature