an international team of scientists found that destruction of the population of koalas can be close relatives of bats. The study was published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Experts have noticed that are described from bats occurring on the North-East of Australia pteropidae gammaretrovirus Hervey (HPG) could cause the extinction of koalas. Deadly retrovirus KoRV found in biological material bats is likely to have caused the population of Koala immune deficiency syndrome, cancer and several other severe health problems. Its pathogen can be passed from one adult animal to another, and from mother to baby.
it is Noted that bats were the traditional carriers of viruses. When transmitted from bats to koalas retroviruses integrate into cells of the germ line, they are referred to as endogenous retroviruses (ERV). According to the observations of scientists, KoRV is an infectious retrovirus that is the subject of endogenization in the gene pool of koalas. Initially, experts believed that a retrovirus has been preserved in the DNA of all the koalas and the disease wore an endogenous character.
According to estimates by Australian environmentalists, the number of koalas over the past nine years has dropped by about 60 percent. In addition to the KoRV virus population undergoes destruction due to forest fires destroying the eucalyptus forests, human activities and other animals.
In January it became known that from forest fires in the Australian state of New South Wales killed about half the wild animals. Among animals, the population of which has decreased significantly because of the disaster, include kangaroos and koalas. The latter region was smaller by about a third.
