15 June 2019 | New Scientist | 45is so enthusiastic about the potential of
this approach that she wants to extend it
to adult koalas. She has just finished a trial
of “crapsules”: pills of fresh faeces designed
to break down when they reach the small
intestine, so that the bacteria they contain
are not damaged by stomach acid.
Thinking even bigger, Flanagan believes
that her team’s findings could have human
applications. As with koalas, if someone is
burned and subsequently infected, they can
develop sepsis: severe systemic inflammation
that can lead to organ failure. Worldwide,
sepsis is a major cause of death for people
with severe burns. One idea that is being
explored by the National Institutes of Health
in the US is to reduce this risk by administering
the equivalent of a poo shake. Another
possibility is using the approach to help
people who, like koalas, don’t respond to
medication, and people with liver disease
who can’t tolerate drugs.
If lessons learned from treating koalas
can save human lives, this could be a win-win.
Claims that koalas are “functionally extinct”
may be premature, but according to
conservation charity WWF, they will be extinct
in the wild within the next 40 years if habitat
destruction continues at the current rate.
Perhaps governments will protect them if
they can help medical research, says Flanagan.
“I don’t give up. My dedicated team of
volunteers, and the koalas, keep me going
despite huge challenges.” ❚rapidly break these down before they do
any harm. As a result, it also processes
pharmaceutical drugs very efficiently. This
makes treating burned koalas a big challenge:
the antibiotics and painkillers they are usually
given can have little effect. What’s more,
koalas caught up in wildfires are often too
traumatised to cope with surgery, so can’t
have skin grafts. Yet successful rehabilitation
depends on repairing damage to burned
paws, because without at least two healthy
claws, a koala can’t climb. And if it can’t climb,
it can’t survive in the wild. However, Flanagan
and her team have now discovered a way
around these difficulties.
In 2017, a devastating wildfire ripped
through Limeburners Creek, 20 kilometres
north of Port Macquarie. Koalas were known
to live in the forest, so, once the blaze had
subsided, Flanagan and 12 volunteers went in
search of survivors. “It was deadly quiet and
the whole forest was covered in white ash,”
says Flanagan. The team spread out in a line
to comb the area, aware that time was of the
essence. “It’s the radiant heat that is often
the most damaging after a fire. It cooks the
poor animals, sometimes for days. It’s like
a microwave, burning through the skin and
melting the keratin in the koala’s fur,” she says.
The rescue party managed to find eight
animals in good enough condition to bring
back to the hospital. “The trouble was, the
koalas were just petrified,” says Flanagan.
“So we decided not to take them into surgery –
they were too stressed.” Instead, they were
simply housed in separate enclosures with
plenty of water and fresh eucalyptus leaves.
Drugs were kept to a bare minimum. However,
the two youngest koalas were fed with the
facility’s special poo shake concoction.
Georgina Kenyon is a writer
based in the Blue Mountains,
New South Wales, AustraliaThis treatment was inspired by something
koalas do in the wild. For about a month while
a joey is being weaned, at 6 months old, it
consumes pap – a watery mixture of partly
digested food and bacteria produced in part of
its mother’s gut called the caecum. This boosts
the joey’s gut microbiome, helping it fight
infection and digest toxic gum tree leaves.
Flanagan’s team feed orphaned joeys pap
or, if that’s not available, regular faeces, and
they did the same with the two infant koalas
rescued after the Limeburners Creek fire.Koala heal thyself
Within weeks, all eight injured animals had
started putting on weight. Their claws and nail
beds were healing too. “It was mind-boggling,”
says Flanagan. “They healed themselves just
by being left alone.” In fact, their recovery was
faster than seen in koalas who have surgery.
She believes that timing was crucial. Burned
koalas appear to have what she calls a “golden
three months”. Burns need to be cooled
quickly, and any infection needs to be brought
under control – she compares it to the “golden
hour” for humans who have been burned.
The revelation was that a bit of pampering
and a healthy gut are enough to do the trick.
These findings are not yet published, but
they are already making waves. “Poo shakes
are controversial among researchers,”
says Flanagan. Some think that they risk
transmitting infections, and others see them
as a rather unpleasant waste of time. However,
support for the idea is bolstered by the growing
realisation that the gut microbiome plays a
vital role in health and disease, and can be
manipulated using faecal transplants. In fact,
Michaela Blyton at Western Sydney UniversityCheyne Flanagan (left)
is in charge at Port
Macquarie Koala
Hospital, where the
best medicine for some
patients is just rest
and a lot of pampering