A⁣ world-first vaccine which can save Australia’s​ endangered koala population from a rampant chlamydia epidemic has now been approved by a ‍federal regulator.

University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC) scientists spent‍ more⁣ than a ‍decade developing a vaccine to curb the spread of the disease – transmitted by close contact or mating – ‌which has decimated wild koala populations across most of eastern Australia.

“Some individual⁤ wild colonies, where infection rate can be as⁣ high as 70 percent, ‍are edging closer to extinction every day,” Dr Peter⁣ Timms‌ said.

He said the team hoped to secure major funding to roll​ out the vaccine nationally to wildlife hospitals, vet clinics and koalas in the wild.

Dr Timms, who specialises ⁢in microbiology, said the single-dose vaccine – without the ‌need for a booster – was the ideal solution to stop the ‌”rapid, devastating‍ spread of this disease, which ‌accounts for as much as half of koala deaths across wild populations”.

Apart from being perhaps fatal,chlamydia can also cause painful urinary tract infections,conjunctivitis,blindness and infertility in ⁢koalas.

Both male and female koalas can contract the disease, which is a different strain to the one found in humans, while joeys can catch ⁣it​ through feeding in their mother’s pouch.

Koalas infected with chlamydia are usually given antibiotics but ​the treatment means they cannot digest eucalyptus leaves – their only food source – leading to starvation and sometiems death.

The much-loved national ‍icon has faced increasing threats to its wild populations across much of eastern Australia in recent decades from factors including land clearing,bushfires,drought and urbanisation.

But‌ chlamydia has been the biggest killer and claimed thousands of⁢ koalas, with some estimates that only 50,000 remain in the wild.

The vaccine’s approval is based on a decade-long study of clinical trials,which the university described as the largest and ‍longest ever ‌study of wild koalas.